![]() More information on her work is available in the Appendix of this book. When I speak of a new paradigm, I am grateful for the work of Leslie Temple-Thurston and her magnificent teachings on leaving the old paradigm and moving into the new. The disintegration of the old paradigm compels us to co-create a new one, and what will love look like in that one? Myriad qualities of love must be expressed in the new paradigm, but I believe a few are absolutely crucial if humans are to survive, thrive, and develop life-supporting, mutually enhancing relationships with one another. ![]() Since we have only one word, what are its nuances? What are some tones or shades that might provide a more copious, expansive sense of love? I return to that lone English word love and ask what it means. “We flourish in a setting of warm, nurturing, and rewarding interpersonal relationships, and within that context we flourish best when we are giving, not getting.” As we hear this, our hearts may soar with inspiration and hope on the other hand, when we consider how challenging forming and maintaining meaningful relationships are and as we hear stories of discord and dissolution of intentional and other communities, our hearts may sink. What truly makes us happy, he asserted, is other people. So said environmental attorney and activist Gus Speth. Some people say that the most important asset we have as we move through the Long Emergency is one another. Almost without exception these individuals have given little or no thought to how they will relate to other human beings in the Long Emergency beyond having massive caches of food and weapons and making very clear to everyone else that they prefer to be left alone and will do whatever it takes to protect their stuff while remaining in isolation. ![]() Throughout 2013 the National Geographic TV channel aired an ongoing Doomsday Prepper series that featured a vast array of individuals and families who are organizing their preps for the inevitable. When googling the word survival, one is likely to encounter numerous websites and blogs that focus only on logistical preparation and offer suggestions for securing doomsday locations, underground bunkers, and information about “bugging out” in the wake of a natural disaster or a societal collapse. Of all the Western languages, English may be the most lacking when it comes to feeling. An Eskimo probably would die of clumsiness if he had only one word for snow we are close to dying of loneliness because we have only one word for love. we would immediately be richer and more intelligent in this human element so close to our heart. If we had a vocabulary of 30 words for love. Eskimos have 30 words for snow, because it is a life-and-death matter to them to have exact information about the element they live with so intimately. This is indicative of the poverty of awareness or emphasis that we give to that tremendously important realm of feeling. Sanskrit has 96 words for love ancient Persian has 80, Greek 3, and English only 1. Below is an adapted excerpt, condensed from the aforementioned title. If not, she still has some great lessons to teach. Carolyn Baker, author of Love in the Age of Ecological Apocalypse, refocuses that loving feeling on true skills that will last you through the anthropocene, should it come to that. Valentine’s Day is all well and good, but counting on boxes of chocolate and chalky LUV U hearts may leave you wanting in an age of uncertain times. Fostering Love in an Age of Crisis Posted by Bevin Donahue – February 16, 2016
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