Love Till it Hurts

Can there be anything greater than a mother's love? Obviously I don't know first-hand, but from watching my own mom take care of my sisters and I, I can only assume it's one of the greatest and most powerful emotions/feelings/obligations in the world. This lead me to think about the "fine line between love and hate"...how both are powerful emotions. We know hate (the absence of love) is destructive but can love (the absence of hate) also be destructive? The yin and yang of these two are so closely related, it seems completely plausible that each have an equal and opposite effect...ew. Sciencey much? Sorry.

I think about the heroes of the twentieth century...people like Gandhi, and Mother Teresa, and the Dahli Lama...People who we consider people of peace, people of change, people of LOVE. Mother Teresa said "if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love." I've always loved this quote, believing it to be competely and totally applicable to both my own life and the world around me. A world so full of hate.

But then I think about this quote within the context of Beloved. Beloved's love for Sethe was powerful, emotional, and, in a word, destructive. But her love was selfish...Sethe on the other hand was (on the surface) unselfish, completely and totally unselfish. Yet in her unselfishness, she was sacrificing everything and desiring love in return.

So when can sacrifice and love go hand in hand? Can pure love break the destructive cycle? I think of the ending scene of the novel, when the residents of the town come to rescue Sethe. There love wasn't self-searching or self-righteous...They were simply conming out of concern for their friend. Their love was thick too and in the end it destroyed the ghost...

Unfortunately, we don't see enough unselfish love in this world. When it comes to hating, you sacrfice love and when it comes to loving, you sacrifice yourself...where then lies the middle ground? And is it possible to find one?