Acceptance

“Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.”

― Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember

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I’ve been watching the news

Reading the posts

Listening to the comment

I have been watching the behaviors

Watching history unfold

Moment by moment

Day by day

Week by week

And it is clear there two paths

There is the path of domination

And the path of service

The path of domination is all about power

And manipulation

It is about using

And taking

It is about control and coercion

Border walls belong to the path of domination

So do “screaming Amecan eagles” on the sides of pickup trucks

Domestic violence is about domination

So are oppressive abortion laws

And guns

And military spending

So is gerrymandering

And voter suppression

So is the misuse of power by ICE

And the local police

The path of domination crushes

Minimizes

Marginalizes

And all too often kills

It is (ironically or not) the dominant culture among much of America

It is the prevailing ideology among politicians

And is it is the monkey in the brain of the one in the Whitehouse

The other way is the way of love

As the man in the cardigan said

“Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.”

Love is about accepting

And welcoming

Caring and giving

Love is about creating value in the other person

Not seeking it

And it is about lifting the other up

Lifting all others up

Creating what Martin Luther King Jr called

The beloved community

A place where all are invited to share (equally) in earth’s bounty

A place where all are embraced and none discriminated against.

A place where love rules and people are loved “for their sakes”

Love is about creating free and friendly spaces

Where all can enter, and be safe enough to unwrap themselves

And become who they were meant to be (Nouwen)

Love is a struggle

But in the end

Love is what we need

Love is all we need

Love is who we become whole

And safe

And rich

And happy

It is love that creates the winning

Love is the way

(and the truth, and the life)