Fear and Love

I used to think that fear was the opposite of love. Now I'm re-imagining that thought. Now I have a new theory: it is all Love. And that is why the conversation isn't working.

This is my first time thinking this out, so this will be a processing argument rather than a final one.

It is all love. Love, that intangible substance which connects us to a person, thing, idea, in a bond stronger than any other. Love, that connection which empowers and moves us to act in ways that are not always logical or based on human instinct for survival. Love, that wave within us that washes over everything else. Love, that invisible net that holds all of creation in connection.

Love. It is ALL love. Fear is not the opposite. Fear is what happens when that connection, that wave, that bond is threatened. Fear is FOR love. Fear is BECAUSE of love. Fear is the self-appointed guardian of love.

Our problem lies in our choosing to love small and stop its expansion. Our problem is that we feel that Love is scarce, to be carefully doled out and preserved for select things. So we force ourselves to choose, and then we die by our chosen idol.

We may choose to love security. We may choose to love our family. We may choose to love our tribe. We may choose to love our country. We may choose to love our earth. When that which we love is threatened, Fear emerges. Fear is the dragon we release to defend our Love to the ends of the earth. Fear is the protector of the scarce resource we call Love. It is too precious to lose.

We find ourselves arguing over whether the Other loves something or not. If they have not chosen the same carefully selected thing we have, then it is not Love, it's idolatry- or hate and ignorance. Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter. Women's Choice vs. Unborn Fetus. Ecological Conservancy vs. Human Dominance. This is the wrong conversation. We are polarizing ourselves when we're actually all at the same marketplace hanging out next to our favorite booth.

It gets complicated when one booth has been historically stampeded for the Love of another. Then it seems only fair that they should be moved to the center, given a chance to survive. When not enough people Love this one thing, it feels even more scarce, and the Fear rises even stronger to protect it.

We all love. Love is always winning.

But is love always expanding? I believe it is, and those of us who resist it feel the ill-effects of the resistance.

If the Universe is expanding, as scientists say, then everything within it on a metaphysical level must also be expanding. Matter and spirit are not separate but entwined. Could it be that when we try to box Love, when we try to confine it to our specifics, that fear is the unhealthy byproduct of a trapped Love?

Fear is the symptom of a spiritual disease brought by our attempt to control the expansion of love.

That might be the conversation we need to have. To talk about how love is expanding, and that none of us need fear being left behind. I see your fear of losing your security. I hear you. You love the absence of anxiety. By God, so do I. I love someone who has never had the choice of being without anxiety. I love someone whose very body negates any claim to security. Can our love for security expand? Can our love for each other be that which swallows the two? Could your married life of love in fact not be threatened by a different looking married life of love? Could your love of your nation be expanded to include the love an immigrant has for freedom? Could your love for the financial security of your family include the love of millions for the same?

Goodness is not scarce. Love is not scarce. There is enough of it to cover us ALL. And there will be infinitely enough as it grows and expands.

At this juncture - I think my point is this: Love is not stagnant and specific. It cannot be. Rather, it is growing and expanding, and the very nature of the Universe is caught up in this. For us to evolve and grow, we must allow the continuing stretch of Love within our souls. We must remember that it won't run out.

That gives me hope. That as much as it may feel like people are ordered and trapped by fear, they are not. That they have love expanding within them, and that fear is just a symptom of holding it too tightly. Whether we like it or not- the path of creation streams outward. The journey of humanity is bathed in expanding love.

Love will win, because it always is. And we will stretch to expand, or we will explode.