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Heroic Virtue: LOVE

By Charles F. Harper

A Passion for Compassion

 

Love, or what I call “a passion for compassion,” is the one virtue that is a prerequisite to all heroic acts and visions.

All the world’s religions point to the power of love and our obligation to love our neighbors. The radical Jesus of Nazareth goes further, telling us to love our enemies. And Jewish mystic Ray Kook adds, “It is our right to hate an evil man for his actions, but because his deepest self is the image of God, it is our duty to honor him with love.”

Love forms the hero’s intent, it under girds his or her perseverance when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, and it keeps the hero in a personal space of serenity when encountering opposition to his or her heroic act or vision. Love conquers all. By helping us to see others as sacred beings not to be manipulated and controlled, love transcends the “isms” that divide the human race. It is love that cultivates a spirit of unity while respecting diversity of ideas, visions, and opinions.

There are essentially three kinds of love: Eros, Platonic and Agape.

Eros is romantic love. The second kind of love is platonic. It’s the type of love that grows out of friendship, an intellectual love devoid of physical passion yet strong enough to weather even the fiercest storms of one’s life.

The most enduring love, and perhaps the most valuable kind of love, is agape. Agape is selfless love. It is so powerful that it allows us to go the distance to sacrifice for another human being or for a vision far greater than ourselves--visions like those embraced by Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa.

Agape is a love sustained in the heart and every fiber of one’s being. Despite anger, hurt, disappointment and all the stuff that happens in life, this is a love that leads to works of altruism, and random acts of kindness and courage, as well as providing the fuel for pursuing a heroic vision that the hero may or may not be around to see come to fruition.

From Mother Teresa to John Lennon it is the kind of love you see in so many hero stories.

Poet Theodore Roethke illustrates this beautifully when he discovers this love in the realm of nature and renews his love and enthusiasm for life.

 

"The Sun! The Sun!
And all we can become!
And the time is ripe for running to the moon!...
My spirit rises with the rising wind;
I'm thick with leaves and tender as a dove...
I recover my tenderness by long looking.
By midnight I love everything alive."

 

After a day of things going our way, after a good night’s rest, it’s fairly easy to say: “This is going to be a great day! I’m going to be a blessing to anyone who crosses my path and they will be a blessing to me. And those who don’t embrace my vision, well that’s okay too.”

But after a full day of work and stress and disappointment, and the hurtful and hateful things that people say, it takes freedom, extraordinary heroic freedom, to drop the resentments, the bitterness...to be finished with the nightmares, and to be free to say, "By midnight I love everything alive.”—to be back in touch with the love that lives at the center of the universe and in the center of one’s own soul.

To quote Elbert Hubbard, an American collector of sayings: “The love we give away is the only love we keep.” Armed with agape love, every hero has what it takes to inspire others and come closer to realizing the seemingly impossible possibility of his or her own heroic vision.  

Question for Discussion

The question we are asked as a human race and as individuals is not whether or not we should love the world, but “How will we share our love with the world?”

Stories Exemplifying Love

Mother Teresa

By: Jeff Trussell
Mother Teresa devoted her life to the homeless and dying in India.
Oprah's Surprise Visit to Jeni Stepanek
Produced by:Oprah Winfrey Network
Video tribute from Oprah Winfrey's Super Soul Sunday

Love Has No Labels

Produced by:Prod. The Ad Council / Dir. R/GA
The Love Has No Labels campaign challenges us to open our eyes to our bias and prejudice and work to stop it in ourselves, others and institutions.

Dr. James Doty

By: Wendy Jewell
James Doty, M.D., FACS, FICS is a professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University and founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.

Love is the Greatest Thing - Pato Banton

Produced by:The MY HERO Project
Pato Banton performs at the MY HERO 20th Anniversary Celebration.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

By: Sahil from San Diego

Martin Luther King, Jr.

By: Brandon from San Diego
Martin Luther King, Jr. lived a life of forgiveness with strength and fearlessness.

Kathy Eldon

By: Wendy Jewell
Kathy Eldon inspired by her son, works for peace and tolerance.

Artwork Exemplifying Love

Love Prevails

Love prevails through thick and thin. Love gives man something to live for. Love is my hero.

Mother Teresa's love

Walt Whitman

Americans Who Tell The Truth - portraits and quotes by Robert Shetterly

Family

Films Exemplifying Love

Law of Love

Producer: Rahul Brown
In 2007, children from Pakistan and India wrote letters to each other for peace.

One Two Three Love

Producer: Alejandro Martinez-Beltran
A little girl's quest for balloons ends up in a surprising situation.

Oumy And I

Producer: Adam Sie
A story about love and acceptance.

Nobelity: Desmond Tutu

Producer: Turk Pipkin
Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu, who won the Peace Prize in 1984, shares his inspiration with us.

Synonyms for Love

Compassion; adoration; caring; devotion; kindness; worship; friendliness; gentleness

Related Links

Oprah's Surprise Visit to Jeni Stepanek

Produced by:Oprah Winfrey Network
Video tribute from Oprah Winfrey's Super Soul Sunday

Organizer created on 2/11/2011 11:11:12 AM by

Last edited 7/24/2019 4:56:38 PM by Xenia Shin

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