Love

Throughout the class, the idea of love towards animals has come up frequently. Recently, we've begun to discuss certain types of love. There is love for the long haul, being invested in someone or some being for a lifetime. This kind of love could be a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a friend, an animal, a child. The other kind is love in the moment, love for an instant. This kind of love could be saving a dog that's not yours from a burning building, picking up a neighbor from the airport, buying a stranger's meal at a restaurant when they realize they have forgotten their wallet.

But are those two kinds of love really much different from each other? As one of my classmates pointed out, is there a difference between a moment of love and a lifetime of love? Does love have a hierarchy?

Now obviously love for a lifetime indicates commitment - the lover has to be dedicated to loving the loved. Similarly though, one can be committed to committing loving and compassionate acts unconditionally, no matter the recipient.

Ultimately, love is a choice. We choose to love for an instant and we choose to love for a lifetime. As another classmate put it, love is not a finite resource. We can expand our love. In fact it is our obligation to expand our love. How we treat any being influences how we treat ourselves and all other beings (relating this to the last post about interconnectedness). Love is a practice. It must be exercised regularly just like any other skill/habit. When we choose love over and over, it becomes easier and more familiar.

Additionally, choosing love is the right thing to do, even if you can't see the end result. Sometimes projects that do not provide immediate results like health system strengthening and investing in a child and education are pushed aside for projects that do. It is if though more good will come from something if you are able to see it happen. False. Even if you can't see the result ever, choosing love is the right thing to do because it benefits others. I'm trying to think of an counterargument to that statement but I can't. I'm sure someone could debate that love does not one hundred percent of the time benefit others, but in general, Love Wins.

So no matter if we love every being for a moment, or one person for a lifetime, or one animal for their entire life, love is a choice and it is the right one. The first law of thermodynamics states that the energy of the universe cannot be created nor destroyed, just like matter. The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of the universe is always increasing. Matter on Earth is not created nor destroyed, it is only changed, just like energy. However, love is like entropy. Love has the capacity to increase forever.