Reflection about love as in kindness.

Love is a short four letter word yet so powerful that no letters can describe. We all need it to survive, we need it to succeed. We need it to be a better person.  We need it to show compassion. Love is the solution.

If we saw on the people from Syria with love – then the war and slaughter of the people and children would not be happening. What if the tables were turned. What if you had been born in Syria? I wish people could look at each other through love. Not love as romantic but love as in seeing the beauty and value of others.

We are too busy getting our perfect lives and careers. We forget the people starving in the famine in Yemen and South of Sudan. We forget the Syrian people and the war they are fighting for freedom and their life’s. Love is not easy, with love comes heartaches when we lose or get hurt by them.  Beauty is in all, look for it with your love glasses on – and you will see.

One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life:

That word is love.”

-Sophocles

In Greek there is 4 forms of love:

• Agápe (ἀγάπηagápē^[1]) means “love: esp. charity; the love of God for man and of man for God.”^[2]Agape is used in ancient texts to denote feelings for
  one’s children and the feelings for a spouse, and it was also used to refer to a love feast.^[3] Agape is used by Christians to express the unconditional love of God for his children.^[4] This type of love was further explained by Thomas Aquinas as “to will the good of another.”^[5]
• Éros (ἔρωςérōs) means “love, mostly of the sexual passion.”^[6] The Modern Greek word “erotas” means “intimate love.” Plato refined his own definition: Although eros is initially felt for a person, with contemplation it becomes an appreciation of the beauty within that person, or even becomes appreciation of beauty itself. Plato does not talk of physical attraction as a necessary part of love, hence the use of the word platonic to mean, “without physical attraction.” In the Symposium, the most famous ancient work on the subject, Plato has Socrates argue that eros helps the soul recall knowledge of beauty, and contributes to an understanding of spiritual truth, the ideal “Form” of youthful beauty that leads us humans to feel erotic desire – thus suggesting that even that sensually based love aspires to the non-corporeal, spiritual plane of existence; that is, finding its truth, just like finding any truth, leads to transcendence.^[7] Lovers and philosophers are all inspired to seek truth through the means of eros.
• Philia (φιλίαphilía) means “affectionate regard, friendship,” usually “between equals.”^[8] It is a dispassionate virtuous love, a concept developed by Aristotle.^[9] In his best-known work on ethics, Nicomachean Ethics, philia is expressed variously as loyalty to friends (specifically, “brotherly love”), family, and community, and requires virtue, equality, and familiarity. Furthermore, in the same text philos denotes a general type of love, used for love between family, between friends, a desire or enjoyment of an activity, as well as between lovers.
• Storge (στοργήstorgē) means “love, affection” and “especially of parents and children”^[10] It is the common or natural empathy, like that felt by parents for offspring.^[11] Rarely used in ancient works, and then almost exclusively as a descriptor of relationships within the family. It is also known to express mere acceptance or putting up with situations, as in “loving” the tyrant. This is also used when referencing the love for ones country or a favorite sports team.

So this type of love I am referring to is the Agape love. The unconditional love. Love is an unwritten human right. We were made of it, so why should we die without it?