The Power of Love and Truth

 Earlier today I read a Social Media post that talked about how the most important magical power in the Harry Potter universe was Love. The person gave several examples of how love shaped an outcome to support the point of view. And then talked about how fans seem to have lost site of that.

(And if you want to have an argument about J.K. Rowling's views on Trans Gendering let us not have it here. Let me know where it is and I will go and participate. Just not here please.)

And I remember in Lord of the Rings, both book and movie, when Gandalf talked about how it is not the great powers that hold back hate and evil, but the small acts of everyday kindness, acts of Love, that do this.

And there are many others throughout the various media that point towards this. The idea seems to permeate us as Human Beings. And it also seems to bring a very strong backlash from us as Human Beings.

For many years of my life, most of the 1st half of my life, I was in a world of hate. I hated everything. You, everyone else, society, societal structures, and more than anything else, myself.

It was the, unacknowledged, self loathing that drove my life.

I tried to Love. I wanted to Love. I could not. I was so wrapped in Self Hate, expressed as Hate for everything, that I was incapable of Being a Person who Loved.

I know that there were/are people who Loved me. My Mum for example. Yet I scared her. I was really intense as a person and radiated hate. And my many brothers and sisters whom I harmed in different ways throughout the years. I think that they were baffled by me.

It was not until I entered the rooms of 12 Step Recovery that I began to be able to accept Love. Although it took me a very long time to understand the truth that Love is what was being given. I still did not understand Love for a long time.

When I started going to meetings the 1st thing that happened was Identification. I heard people share the Truth about their lives and in that I heard the Truth about my life. It took many years for me to understand what was happening, to understand that I was Identifying with these folks, all I really understood was that they seemed to understand me and were able to help me to understand the insanity of my life. By sharing theirs.

And most importantly, when I could Identify with their story of Addiction I began to believe the Possibility that their story of Recovery could be mine as well.

I have since come to know that the most Loving Act I can make is to tell the Truth to someone. Even when they do not want me too. Or I do not want too.

And I do not mean being "Brutally Honest". Brutal Honesty has nothing to do with Honesty and everything to do with Brutality. There is Nothing Loving about it. Kind, Respectful, Gentle Truth. That is the way.

Took me a long time to get that as well. I used to pride myself on Being Brutally Honest. Today I cannot be that, nor do I encourage it, nor do I support it. It is only Brutality.

What I am talking about is loving the other so much that you are willing to be truthful, in a loving way, even though it may imperil the relationship.

So many people tried to tell me the truth, as they understood it, about my life. And I was incapable of hearing it. It was not until I hit a bottom in my life where I was no longer able to look away from my life and deny the truth of what I had become that I could begin to effect a change in my life and what I had become.

Acceptance. In order to know the Truth I first MUST accept that what I know as the truth currently is not so. If it ever was so it is not now, or it never was to begin with.

And it is only with Love that I can get there.

The many people who Loved me enough to not disown me completely when I was lost in Hate and Self Destruction.

The people who Loved me when I walked into meeting, not knowing me personally, and knowing me just on the fact that I showed up, to share their lives intimately with me in all of the pain and joy involved. The many people who have continued to do that in all my years since.

And especially, the 3 different men who have Loved me enough to offer me themselves through the act of Sponsorship. Each one of those men have given me an invaluable gift, and continue to unto this day. They gave, and give me, the Truth and let me do what I will with it. That is Love in it's purist form. So I believe.

So what is the point of all this? I am so glad that you asked 😎

As I have been saying a lot lately, We Must Love Each Other or Die. We, as Humanity, are heading down a very dark path. And that path leads to our own destruction. It is only through the power of Love and Acceptance of Truth that we can get out of this.

We must Love each other, even those we disagree with mightily, more than we Love ourselves and our little groups. Our Communities MUST embrace ALL of us. We can no longer be divided by all the things that divide us. As Ben Franklin said in a different context, "We must all hang together or we shall most certainly all hang separately".

And that will take work. As there are some very well funded efforts to make sure that we stay divided. We must move beyond listening to them and start listening to each other.

Another thing that I have been saying a lot lately, "We must Love each other. It is the only rational act". I am paraphrasing something said in the book "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. A really good read. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Love is the Rational Act. Hate is the Irrational Act. They are diametrically apposed to each other. If you have one you have no space for the other.

Hate is easy. It is quick. It really takes no effort. As Obi Wan said to Luke, "Anger, Fear, Aggression - the dark side of the force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight".

Love, that takes being in touch with ones own Humanity. It takes Acceptance of things as they are and are not. To Love takes being able to see, and sometimes inhabit, another's world without making the other Wrong. And it takes a Massive Understanding of the World around us as it is.

And just to clear something up, I am not just telling you all of this. I am also telling myself all of this. I am just a capable of getting angry and lost in all of the negative effects of that as anyone. I can Hate with the best of them.

Today I do not want to be that person. I want to be a person that can Love, even those whom I think are part of the forces that are driving Hate. Most of them cannot see what they do. As Yeshua the Nazerene said "Forgive them Father. For they know not what they do". (No. I am not a Christian. I do not subscribe to Religion at all.)

So Acceptance, Understanding, Truth, Love. Those are the things that will save us. And we must save ALL of US or NONE of US shall Survive.

Love Each Other. It is the only Rational act.

We must Love each other. Or we shall all die.