The On-going battle between Love and Fear

Fear is easy. Love is hard. In a culture that celebrates what is easy, is it any wonder that being fearful feels as natural as breathing? The saddest thing about this is that the first victim of our inability to love is ourselves. Self-loathing seems to be the modern predicament, and the hardest part is that we're encouraged to hate ourselves everywhere we turn. Every TV commercial, every magazine ad, every billboard, in one way or another mocks us for thinking that we can be a whole, integrated person, content with what we have or even embarrassed at the excess we possess. Our world encourages us to crave Excess; we are supposed to be in a state of perpetual physical longing. We are discouraged from having an excess of Love, however, because when one is in that state, there is only one thing to do: give it away.

Is this predicament really any different from what people have experienced throughout time? Not really. What IS different is the immediacy of wish fulfillment. Not only can we have it, we can have it NOW! Immediate gratification, sadly, only exacerbates this feeling of never being filled, complete.

The corrective? Well, it's not popular these days. It's called "Spirituality". It is the part of us that we try to reason away. It's the part of us that Madison Avenue cannot sway. It's not a need for "religion", although that is often where it leads. It is merely the recognition that "No man is an island". Against the blaring horns of "rugged individualism" and the "self-made man", the human heart is constantly crying out for union, companionship, and community, for it is there that our wholeness lies. These are concepts that cannot be quantified or sold on stores' shelves. They can only measure in one of two ways: by the joy the heart feels when it is joined with others, or the anguish it feels when neglected.

The language of the needy individual surfaces from time to time, but it can be difficult to experience. It is given to us by the poets, the painters, and the artists. The good ones, at least. And who are the "good" ones? Ah! You must listen with your heart.