Lucas is four weeks old today. Here's a fun photo for you.
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Everything in me says "yes" to the truth of this statement: The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.
My time as a husband, father, son, brother, friend, minister, teacher, coach, and writer bears witness to the accuracy of this statement.
But I'm not always right. So, do you agree with that sentiment? Is indifference the antithesis of love (and not, as we sometimes suspect, hate). Perhaps indifference is the tenured result of hate. That is, perhaps indifference is the result of hate stretched out over a long period of time.
7 comments:
Honestly? I'm chewing on it, but I think no.
I think the opposite of love (intentional gracious self-sacrifice as a life orientation) IS hate.
Indifference is the opposite of passion, but indifference is, well, indifferent.
I'm talking about the difference between just driving by a stranded member of another race, and swerving close to shoot at them. Apartheid and the Holocaust might have been abetted by indifference, but I think they were DRIVEN by hate.
One is indifference. The other is hate. Sometimes they look alike, but it isn't an indifferent father that puts out cigarettes on his son's chest.
I don't know that there is a true antithesis to love. I can see your point with indifference. If I had to nail it down, I might go with being absolutely self-absorbed (i.e. not indifferent, but more a constant state of self-seeking/self-pleasing/self-promoting). That's my take...
fumbling: Good thoughts and examples. I'll give this some thought today and respond later.
Lance: Self-absorbed . . . could we also use the word "pride"? . . . Early Christians thought that pride was the root of the seven deadly sins.
JG
I think Pride definitely goes hand-in-hand with it. The way I'm thinking of it, indifference and hate do, as well. If I'm so focused on myself, I take no interest in anything that doesn't relate to my own concerns/passions/desires (indifference). If anything stands in the way of fulfilling those, that's a threat that must be overcome. Any person who I perceive to keep me from those things or has the things I want becomes the an enemy (in extreme, hate). My own achievement and work toward those selfish goals drives pride.
It does seem to require a certain degree of apathy to not love.
-K. Rex Butts
I think that love and hate are too closely linked to really be opposites. To love or hate something, one must have a strong emotional connection to it. Apathy is just the opposite; it is saying that you have no feelings whatsoever about it.
My dad, for example. I am pretty sure that I hate him. But I think that is closer to loving him than not caring about him at all. Hate implies that there is something I wish could be different, in which case, there is a chance that I could, under other circumstances, love him.
...so hate is too close to love to be its opposite.
Am I making any sense?
Emily, The example from your life strikes me in a powerful way. Thanks for sharing that. How is Uganda? WOW. We miss you.
JG
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