LOVE
Love has multiple interpretations, mulptiple experiences. The romance of it has flourished and been tarnished and lost. It still flourishes, is still tarnished and is still lost….and found. People divorce and separate and try again. Families break up and then creep back together with or without unburdening the hurt of years, mistakes, abuses or misundertandings.
“Love is strong as death.”
In the public domain the shop steward on the factory floor – a diminishing figure for years now – could be said to be living out love in his/her solidarity and action with and for the legislated and hard fought rights of the workers against capitalist greed.
The 3 year old embraces and cries, laughs and plays with everyone in the playground without judgement. The ageing nursing home resident finally says after years of moving on and distancing friends and family who are different: “We just need to accept each other.”
Nelson Mendela after his release from 27 years of incarceration tells this story of love: ….”After I became president, I asked my escort to go to a restaurant for lunch. We sat down and each of us asked what we wanted.On the front table, there was a man waiting to be served. When he was served, I said to one of my soldiers: go and ask that gentleman to join us. The soldier went and conveyed my invitation to him. The man got up, took his plate and sat down right next to me.While he ate his hands trembled constantly and he did not lift his head from his food. When we finished, he said goodbye without looking at me, I shook his hand and he left. The soldier told me: Madiba that man must have been very ill, seeing as his hands didn’t stop shaking while he ate. Absolutely no! the reason for his trembling is another. Then I told him: ….That man was the warden of the prison where I stayed. After he tortured me, I screamed and cried asking for some water and he came humiliated me, laughed at me and instead of giving me water, he urinated in my head.He is not sick, he was afraid that I, now president of South Africa, would send him to prison and do to him what he did to me. But I’m not like that, this conduct is not part of my character, nor of my ethics.Minds that seek revenge destroy states, while those that seek reconciliation build nations. Walking out the door to my freedom, I knew that if I didn’t leave all the anger, hatred and resentment behind me, I would still be a prisoner.”
– Nelson Mandela.
In Julia Baird’s book “Bright Shining – How Grace Changes Everything” she writes in The Callus : On Restorative Justice ” What’s fascinating about restorative justice, experts say, is that the loudest calls for it are coming from survivors, who are pushing for alternatives to a justice system that too often revicitmise and fails the people who have been harmed. Typically, restorative justice works alongside – not in place of – the legal process, and involves bringing victims together with perpetrators in a facilitated environment where they can seek accountability, information and an opportunituy to speak some truths. It aims to give victims a voice, usually denied in court, where they may only get to answer questions or, in some rare cases, when there has been a conviction, give a witness statement. Victims usually want to be heard and believed, and to be sure the person won’t reoffend.
Restorative justice has been used with great effect for decades in juvinile justice, with victims of motoring accidents, and in dealing with a range of other offences, in myrias ways, in Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Northern Ireland, Belgium and the US state of Arizona, and among Navajo, Maori and Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander communities. “
Love has this kind of application.
I am finding that I need to take time to sit and let the love imperative take centre stage in my heart, my intention and my planning – immediate and long term. Sitting or on the run, in conflict and in reflection love is the return button. How can I advocate for young offenders under the current conservative government in Queensland’s “Adult Crime, Adult Time” legislation given what Julia Baird writes? What about closer to home in differences in understanding and communication in our 51 year marriage?
“Love is strong as death.”
Peter Breen, March 12, 2025.
What is an experience of love that you would be willing to talk about that has enriched your lived experience?
Next week I will be reflecting with you on Spirituality in the ALSO acronym. This is an evocative term and one that might trigger revulsion from previous bad religious experiences or on the other hand, it might be one you love to consider and immerse yourself in out of your own interest or hunger.
Peteskibreen's Blog 