The Work of Love

We are capable of rich and life-altering intimacy--however fleeting--with the oldest of comrades, and the newest of acquaintances. We can step away from the empty pleasantries that distance us from others and that "mask" the ill-mannered insecurities that cause us to neurotically and compulsively apologize for our chronic truancy and bad behavior.

We can acknowledge that our own self-loathing, though deeply personal, is not an exclusive phenomenon, but a universal and shared truth that can be expressed and shared in myriad and useful ways to disarm and engage with others who are similarly wounded.

We can ask better questions of ourselves and of one another and we can implore a heartfelt response. We can assert that we are not responsible for the suffering of the world while still acknowledging, as members of the human race, that it is in fact our collective burden.

And more to the point. we can actually take some of the pain away if we would simply choose to reach outside of the gravitational pull of our own self-centered agenda through sincere. purposeful. and conscious acts... of love.