I’ve often heard that school is never out for the teacher. Even though I am no longer teaching in the traditional sense, I still find myself wanting to learn about a variety of topics. That said, I recently signed up for a few courses via Coursera (they did not pay me to post that). So far I’ve been working on Love As a Force for Social Justice, and our first assignment was to define what love means to us and what we believe the opposite of love is. The following was my answer:
From my experience of love and what I have read in this course so far, there isn’t just one definition of what love is as it tends to vary by person. For me love can be defined in three ways. First of all, love is a feeling. It is a feeling comprised of trust, understanding, caring, commitment, kindness, and patience. Secondly, love is an experience of joy and being one’s best self. This is the type of love embodied by things such as loving nature and feeling most alive when outside or loving to serve others and finding joy in volunteering. Finally, love is a living and exemplifying The Golden Rule. There is no greater way for me to define love than by demonstrating the ability to love others as I love myself. Thus far, this is how I would define love.
The opposite of love is hate which can be embodied in a variety of ways. One way that hate is the opposite of love is that hate involves mistreating others. When people are mistreated for any reason this shows hate. Additionally, hate is the opposite of love in that hate involves violence. Violence can be verbal, physical, or in writing. Lastly, hate is the opposite of love as it involves characteristics not associated with love such as injustice, discrimination, and deception. When these characteristics are present, love cannot be shown. These are some of the reasons that I feel hate is the opposite of love.
How do you define love?
XOXO,
The Great Kaysby
The Great Kaysby 