Love all always … updates
Love all always … updates
Links
Loving the self, but not the other … USA election and religion.
Love China, Love USA … “no suggestion of wrongdoing”
Updates 1
Introduction
Why am I talking about love …?
The news and everyday lives
Where and when is love to be found in society?
Cases
“Prayer for unity offered at Notre Dame”
Princess of Wales … “an ode to love and kindness”
Christmas: peace and good will to all
Conclave: an inclusive or an exclusive church (?)
A funeral service with believers and non-believers
“Would they hide us?”
Faith and charity
Abstract concepts
Distributions in positive and negative relationship space
Introduction
Why am I talking about love …?
… when there is so much bad news?
Firstly, if love is so rare, then let us celebrate these few rare occasions.
But love may not be rare, rather the news may be biased in favour of bad news.
So, talking about love provides a counter to the bias.
Moreover, love may provide an antidote to bad events …
… there is value in having a reservoir of love.
Finally, talking about love can be about celebrating love for its own sake.
The news and everyday lives
For some people the news is worse than their everyday lives. For others the news is better than their everyday lives.
Where and when is love to be found in society?
Where and when is love to be found in society? We can look at everyday lives and we can look in the news.
What follows are just a few of the places which I have found where there is love. There are loving communities and loving occasions.
Cases
“Prayer for unity offered at Notre Dame”
“The ravines between men can be filled. The mountains of pride can be planed. The tortuous lies can give place to joy and truth.”
Monsignor Laurent Ulrich.
The Times, 9.12.24, p.28.
Princess of Wales … “an ode to love and kindness”
The fourth annual Together at Christmas carol service was “a heartfelt celebration of people helping their community, and a reminder that at Christmas, and throughout the year, we must all shine for each other.” Contributions had the themes of “love and empathy” … “empathy and kindness” … “kindness and friendship”.
The Times, 7.12.24, pp. 1, 12.
https://royalfoundation.com/together-at-christmas-returns-westminster-abbey/
Christmas: peace and good will to all
“Goodwill to all” relates to the phrase “love all always”.
It links to part of a well-known verse, Luke 2:14, a verse for which there are about a hundred different translations! Some translations are inclusive and some are exclusive – thus relating respectively to two relationship types: (1) love all always; and (2) loving the self but not the other.
https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Luke%202%3A14
Conclave: an inclusive or an exclusive church(?)
Conclave is a book by Robert Harris and now a film. It is about an old pope dying and the conclave to elect a new pope. The cardinals are in conflict and there are different factions. In part the conflict is between an inclusive church and an exclusive church. Amidst the tumult one of the cardinals speaks out quoting Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians, and argues for an inclusive church.
See the section on “religious response” in:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conclave_(film)
Book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conclave_(novel)
A funeral service with believers and non-believers
Each of us faces the prospect of our own funeral and a service which likely contains believers and non-believers. The deceased may or may not believe in an afterlife. Some of the mourners may believe and some may not. The leader of the service may or may not. What might an exclusive service be like? What might an inclusive service be like?
“Would they hide us?”
Nathan Englander and his sister used to play a game “whereby every new person they met was assessed through the prism of one question: ‘In the event of a second Holocaust, would they hide us?’ ”.
This led Englander to write a story in 2011 and a play which will start in January.
Thinking now just about the question, it is a weighty question to put to any relationship. The notion of Love All Always provides an answer but would it always be easy to give that answer … and would that answer always be correct, or would it depend on the ‘they’, the ‘us’, and the circumstances?
The Times, 9.12.24, p. 9.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank
Story, 2011: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/12/12/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-anne-frank
Theatre, 20 January 2025: https://officiallondontheatre.com/show/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-anne-frank-111445507/?month=01%2F25
Faith and charity
Zaki Cooper explains that philanthropy and faith frequently go hand in hand. He notes the high proportion of people of faith amongst the philanthropists who spoke at the recent Giving and Impact Summit held at the London Stock Exchange.
https://spearswms.com/impact-philanthropy/prominent-philanthropists-call-for-uk-to-give-more/
He notes that many of the great philanthropists of the past have been inspired by their faith. people of faith have been involved in anti-poverty campaigns such as Jubilee 2000 and Make Poverty History in 2005. There are about 50,000 faith-based charities in Britain today, making up about 27% of the whole charity sector. (So 73% of charities are not explicitly faith-based – but this leaves open the number of people of faith in these other charities – and vice-versa). Cooper refers to Finchley and the Jewish community there -where there are about 2,300 charities and the community is about 300,000 strong. Robert Putnam has found that people from faith communities have a higher incidence of charity work and volunteering than the general population. Many churches and hospitals have religious roots. …
… “charitable acts are carried out every day across the UK without fuss or fanfare and much of this is motivated by faith”.
Cooper notes that “philanthropy lies like a golden thread through the great religions” and points to the teachings in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
“Philanthropy and its twin sister, charity, lie at the heart of our faith communities.”
Zaki Cooper, a vice president of the council of Christians and Jews.
The Times, 7.12.24, p. 82.
Abstract concepts
Distributions in positive and negative relationship space
Starting with the notion, “Love all always”, we have been looking at positive and negative relationship patterns. Taking a binary approach we have identified sixteen possible patterns. We now seek to go beyond a binary approach and think in terms of four continuous variables each of which has a negative and a positive interval. This gives a four-dimensional space which has sixteen ‘quadrants’ corresponding to the sixteen patterns in the binary approach. the four variables are:
Self: the relationship of A with A (positive or negative)
Other: the relationship of A with B (positive or negative)
Self: the relationship of B with B (positive or negative)
Other: the relationship of B with A (positive or negative)
On each of the four dimensions the relationship is characterised by a number, giving a point along the dimension. Together the four numbers give a point in four-dimensional space. The point represents the nature of the relationship.
Now consider the relationship on different occasions. On each occasion the relationship is represent by a point. So the set of occasions give a set of points, a distribution of points in relationship space. The distribution represents the nature of the relationship.
THE END