There is love …

There is love, like, respect and indifference.  These are the ways we are provided to treat our fellow men.  Love is strong, but often destructive.  It is the single-most significant force in all the universe.  It has moved man to great acts of passion that range from the infinitely altruistic and romantic to the darkest recesses of human depravity and maliciousness.  It is a constant force whose presence is always known if not always welcome.

Like is the glue that holds the human sensibility and interpersonal together.  It is the medium that creates the truest bond between two human objects in a turbulent and ever-changing existance.  It provides the lubrication that love cannot bring in times of greatest stress and when the very fabirc of our souls are tested to the point of tearing.  Like is the reason people are able to stay in as close a proximity to one another as we have since man formed cultures and cultures formed civilizations and civilizations became societies.  It is Like that wins out over all.

Respect is powerful, but intensely fragile.  It is endowed for many reason; most of which are wrong.  The logic behind respect has migrated from what a person truly is to what a person is called.  The problem with that is what we are called has also moved from the thing that defines us to a superficial, title-laden hierarchy where what your are called does not speak to your skills, or your being or your soul, but more often to where you have been able to climb based on the work of the many you have managed to subjugate along your self-focused journey.  True respect comes when one is known for who they are; from where they come; what they can do; and what is known by others about the very nature of their heart.  The ancient and mystical sense of “to know” as in alchemy when a substance can be controlled because its very nature is so revealed and trusted by the alchemist.

Then there is indifference; just don’t care.  This is perhaps the most indidious place to land.  All the other states require some form of engagment.  You have to feel something to be in any of the other three, but indifference is more than any of them.  It is the total lack of any of them.  It is very difficult to come to a place where you very truly don’t care.  You almost always give things some weight, even if only a litte, and some value, even if only a little bad or a little good… But, indifference; that is when you have passed throgh one or more of the other three and have arrived at nothingness.  It says much about the journey you have likely taken to get there.  It usually means that one or more of the other three was once strong with this, but that fire has now exhausted all its fuel. It is out.  There isn’t even enough left to warrant recognition of existence.  It is not hot, not cold, not anything.  It just isn’t.  Be very careful when you find yourself arriving here.  It may say more about you than the thing you don’t even recognize or feel.