Love and Fear
28 07 2006I recently heard an idea that was new to me and I was so taken back by it that I’m not sure if I agree or not. Basically, if we are created for relationships (I believe we are) then everyone responds to everything out of either fear or love. If that’s true, then every situation we find ourselves in we are faced with the decision to react out of fear or love. In all relationships we act out of fear or love.
I think that if this is true, then it certainly isn’t always a conscious choice. I don’t usually think in every situation about whether I will act out of fear or love, but I can see it play out that way. So I guess what I am getting at is answering the questions, “how conscious can we become of this decision to act?”, “Can we always choose love?”, “Is Love love always better?”
I’m not sure if this was your original source, but it’s certainly the place I’d first heard the idea: it’s from Australian cartoonist (and poet) Michael Leunig:
“There are only two feelings, love and fear
There are only two languages, love and fear
There are only two activities, love and fear
There are only two motives, two procedures, two frameworks, two results
Love and fear
Love and fear.”
- Michael Leunig, 1998
I hadn’t heard of that. Somone just told me about it. Sounds really cool though. Thanks for the comment. Do you have a link or source?
Something tells me that if there’s right and wrong (and I believe there is) then love and fear may be moot, or at least connected.
So maybe it’s not whether we act out of love or fear but whether we do the right or wrong thing.
And if you’re worried about motive (doing the right thing out of fear of consequences), I would say that doing the right thing often enough will change a person.
There was a self-help guru in the movie Donnie Darko who divided all human experience as motivated by either hate or love. Donnie pretty much shot that idea down in this exchange:
Kittie: Fear and love are the deepest of human emotions.
Donnie: Okay. But you’re not listening to me. There are other things that need to be taken into account here. Like the whole spectrum of human emotion. You can’t just lump everything into these two categories and then just deny everything else!
Donnie’s right.
Milton, what a great commment. I love that movie, too. Thanks for commenting.