Love in Perspective

Upon reading this chapter I came to the realization that there is further meaning to the words that I frequently hear. The word described in this chapter was "love". Rather than going into detail about the overstated and massively cliched definition of love, he took it in a different direction. This chapter gave me a fresh insight into his world of love and the innocent perspective of the emotion that many people overlook when they carry on with their daily lives. Kahane describes love as the disposition to help another with their needs and putting less focus on our own (29). Upon first reading this, I found myself opposing such point of view until I read further and realized how relevant it actually is to my life. As a matter of fact, I had an experience that truly illustrated the point.

It started when I went on your gleaning trip to Novato. I didn't think much of the trip since it involved what I considered to be a miniscule task. The project involved picking vegetables and measuring them before delivering them to local high schools. Once having completed the task it was brought to my attention that I focus on the quality and size of the vegetables before taking them. Upon arriving at the high school, it hit me that I wasn't just doing this for the well-being of my grade, but rather an opportunity to help people who weren't me. When I read this chapter, I came to the conclusion that when you do things for others thinking about yourself, you are doing it for the wrong reasons and is cause for frustration. True love isn't just a matter of finding the group of people for yourself, but rather finding the right things for others.

Christina Kwok