Just what is Love? Often we think of Love as a force that defies definition. However that doesn’t stop us from trying to put it in a box. Philosophers, poets, parents and priests have contemplated this most mysterious of human motivations.
Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
- Dr. Jubal Harshaw
In his book, Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein describes love from the perspective of brotherhood (i.e. Water-Brotherhood
). He agrees with Dr. Peck’s belief that we cannot love all comers
expressed in his renown bestseller The Road Less Traveled. Both versions of love are based on the premise that we are all made of the same stuff as is God. That is , in loving our brothers & sisters we simultaneously love God; and ourselves. The two authors differ slightly on one subject, that of personal responsibility.
Love is the Will to extend oneself for the psychological or spiritual growth of another.
- Dr. M. Scott Peck
Stranger in a Strange Land is decidedly Anarchist in its treatment personal responsibility. The voice of wisdom embodied by Jubal Harshaw explains his household policy: This here is Freedom Hall, everyone does as he pleases… Then if does something I don’t like I throw him the hell out
. The all-powerful spiritual miracle worker character would kill you with his mind if he thought you were evil, but would never lock you up. The entire philosophy of the book surrounds personal responsibility, the terrible defiant assertion that you and you alone are responsible for the world in which you live. Thou art God!
The Road Less Traveled having been written by a Psychiatrist, takes a different approach. Dr. Peck discusses how appropriately assigning responsibility is one of the basic skills of mental and spiritual health. I prefer this latter approach to Heinlein’s because it allows for real life complexities, though the former makes for better fiction. Peck generally believes that your authority is only over yourself, and that authority is absolute. To assume that authority over another person is to play God in their life. Heinlein’s Libertarian philosophy would reject this as intrusive, but Peck embraces the practice as embodying the relationship between God and Love. He says summarizes the philosophy rather poetically We arrive then at a paradox: Only through the humility of Love can humans dare to be God.
Does this bring us any closer to understanding Love? Heinlein’s Libertarian spirituality states that Love is the ultimate freeing force: Nothing you want to do could possibly be sinful… if it were you wouldn’t want to do it.
Heinlein then comments It’s a fine system… For Angels
. Dr. Peck says nearly the same thing, but describes it as an endless struggle to comprehend ourselves and our motivations. Is Love the catalyst by which man becomes God? Is Love a path to holy self-awareness? Is there really a difference?