120 philosophical essays you must read in your life

Chapter 99

Chapter 6 Section 3 Love and Responsibility

[United States] Fromm

Love involves caring, the most obvious expression of which is the love of a mother for her child.If we see a mother's indifference to her baby, if she forgets to nurse and wash it, if she does not give it physical warmth, her love will never convince us to be faithful.If she cares about children, then she gives us the impression that she loves children.

Even the love of birds and beasts, flowers and plants is not like this?If a woman tells us she loves flowers, and we find out that she forgot to water them, we will not believe that she "loves" flowers.Love is an active concern for the life and growth of the object of our love.Where there is a lack of active concern, there is no love.

This factor of love is vividly described in the mythical story about Jonah in the Bible.God told Jon to go to the capital city of Nineveh and warn the inhabitants there that if they did not mend it, they would be punished.Jonah, a man with a strong sense of law and order, believed that the residents deserved to be punished.Therefore, he did not complete this mission.By avoiding his mission, he put himself in the belly of a fish.This symbolizes the loneliness and captivity that lack of love and compassion brought him.

Later, God saved Jonah, so Jonah went to Nineveh to fulfill his mission.But Jonah was still very angry, because he hoped that the residents there would be brought to justice, not sympathy for them, but God saved the city and pardoned the people there.

Afterwards, Jonah felt quite comfortable resting under the shade of a tree that God had placed for Jonah as a shade from the sun.But when God made the tree dying, Jonah was very disappointed.

God replied, "You have pity on the tree, and you have done nothing to it, and you have not made it grow. It sprouts one night, and perishes the next night. You can pity a tree, but you can't do it to Nini." There are so many people in Weicheng, shouldn't we forgive them?" God explained to Jonah that love is "labor" for something and "grow something".Love and labor are inseparable. A person often loves what he is willing to work for, and at the same time, he is willing to work for the thing he loves.

Care and caring imply another element of love, that of conscientiousness.Responsibility today often refers to duty, something imposed on a person from outside.

Responsibility, however, is, in its very essence, an entirely voluntary action.It is our response to another person's direct or indirect needs. To be "responsible" means to be able or willing to "respond".

【Together with you】

Everyone bears the cross of his own responsibility, if that person is still full of love for the world.

Love is the root of responsibility, without the basic love to the world, how can we talk about responsibility.

Love means giving, means selfless action.Love without action is inevitably superficial and deviates from the core essence of responsibility.No matter how far away love is, it is always there.Just like the stars are forever far away, yet so near.

Love is like a tide, it will return faithfully to its original place when it recedes.

(End of this chapter)