I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.
-Mother Teresa
paradox- noun
1. a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
2. a self-contradictory and false proposition.
3. any person, thing, or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature.
4. an opinion or statement contrary to commonly accepted opinion.
Søren Kierkegaard, for example, writes, in the Philosophical Fragments, that
But one must not think ill of the paradox, for the paradox is the passion of thought, and the thinker without the paradox is like the lover without passion: a mediocre fellow... This, then, is the ultimate paradox of thought: to want to discover something that thought itself cannot think.[11]
What is interesting to me about the etymology of the word paradox is that its Greek root is paradoxon meaning literally beyond belief. There is no broken down root, just the word itself. Paradoxical thinking must be part of the human condition. I think it is why we are so drawn to puzzles and riddles.
Love, it seems, is our biggest puzzle.
To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love. But then, one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be happy, one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness.
~ Woody Allen
It makes sense in that we are caught in this dance of actions, words and understanding. These are our tools. It seems that e-mail, texting, etc... has only added to the melee. I think that is why with blindness, we often see what's real. Or as the Little Prince teaches, what is most important cannot be seen, it can only be felt with the heart.
Dogs, for instance, have it worked out pretty well. They sniff and strut around and then reach an understanding. Birds, for example, as well, I love those video of birds in their elaborate dance of courtship and love. It's not paradoxical, it just is.
Here's a video of one of my favorite bird courtship dances-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7QZnwKqopo
Human's are so complex though. I am trying to convey this paradox in my book. My main character is deeply wounded by love. She loves until it hurts over and over again and, in the end, hopefully though I am not there yet, finds more love, an ocean of it, the bigger version. I am hoping both personally and professionally that what Mother Theresa says is true. It certainly resonates with me, like in alchemy love can burn off the impurities to a more refined and potent state of being.
-Mother Teresa
paradox- noun
1. a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
2. a self-contradictory and false proposition.
3. any person, thing, or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature.
4. an opinion or statement contrary to commonly accepted opinion.
Søren Kierkegaard, for example, writes, in the Philosophical Fragments, that
But one must not think ill of the paradox, for the paradox is the passion of thought, and the thinker without the paradox is like the lover without passion: a mediocre fellow... This, then, is the ultimate paradox of thought: to want to discover something that thought itself cannot think.[11]
What is interesting to me about the etymology of the word paradox is that its Greek root is paradoxon meaning literally beyond belief. There is no broken down root, just the word itself. Paradoxical thinking must be part of the human condition. I think it is why we are so drawn to puzzles and riddles.
Love, it seems, is our biggest puzzle.
To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love. But then, one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be happy, one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness.
~ Woody Allen
It makes sense in that we are caught in this dance of actions, words and understanding. These are our tools. It seems that e-mail, texting, etc... has only added to the melee. I think that is why with blindness, we often see what's real. Or as the Little Prince teaches, what is most important cannot be seen, it can only be felt with the heart.
Dogs, for instance, have it worked out pretty well. They sniff and strut around and then reach an understanding. Birds, for example, as well, I love those video of birds in their elaborate dance of courtship and love. It's not paradoxical, it just is.
Here's a video of one of my favorite bird courtship dances-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7QZnwKqopo
Human's are so complex though. I am trying to convey this paradox in my book. My main character is deeply wounded by love. She loves until it hurts over and over again and, in the end, hopefully though I am not there yet, finds more love, an ocean of it, the bigger version. I am hoping both personally and professionally that what Mother Theresa says is true. It certainly resonates with me, like in alchemy love can burn off the impurities to a more refined and potent state of being.
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