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Love and understanding


We can understand only what we love.  Joe was a little surprised to hear that.  “I thought you were a purely rational person,” he said staring into my eyes, “someone who looks at everything from a logical or scientific point of view.”

“Yes, Joe,” I said, “Reason and science.  Do we have any better tools for understanding our world and its realities?”

Joe was obviously confused.  Where do I put love then?  We can only understand what we love.

I need science and reason to understand the physical realities around me.  The origin of the world, the shimmer of the stars out there, and life wiggling out of rotting filth – how do I understand these mysteries without science? 

Yet, without love, all my understanding remains distant.  How do I understand you, Joe, unless I love your crankiness?  I cannot understand you if I don’t go beyond what science and reason tell me about you.  You are not just a bundle of chromosomes.  You are not just a parcel of cells and atoms.  You are not a sum of your parts. 

It is something that lies beyond the atoms of science that forges the bonds of understanding.  It is in that forge that your agonies merge into the marrow of my bones.  The dance in your eyes renders grace to my existence.  Have you ever thought of a world where such understanding is as common as the air we breathe?  That’s just a dream.


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