more thoughts on the other
So yeah… I’m commenting on my own post. This is like the story of my life – talking to myself. But I was reminded of a paradoxical thought that I’ve come across and thought about in the past. The basic premise of that paradox comes from this quote from The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky:
“If I must love my fellow man, he had better hide himself, for no sooner do I see his face than there’s an end to my love for him . . . The idea of loving one’s neighbor is possible only as an abstraction: it may be conceivable to love one’s fellow man at a distance, but it is almost never possible to love him at close quarters.”
My good friend Chris Bhang writes more about this idea in his blog (which is where I copied the quote from.) http://www.xanga.com/bhangbhangbang?nextdate=7%2f11%2f2007+15%3a32%3a53.453&direction=n
I think you get the paradox. But I was also thinking about a movie I watched recently called Music Within. Its a pretty quality movie and one I would recommend seeing. The main character becomes friends with a man with cerebral palsy – a man whose physical appearance is rather ‘unlovely.’ Towards the end of the movie the man with cerebral palsy is talking about how people view handicapped persons. He talks about how they try to ignore him because he looks so repulsive and almost inhuman. He says, “I make them feel. I love that.” Perhaps that is why we find it so difficult to love our neighbor ‘at close quarters’ or those that seem so repulsive – because they really make us feel. Their perceived unloveliness shows us a deep brokenness within humanity – our own humanity. Can we embrace their brokenness – our own brokenness?
Here’s a quote that I jotted down awhile ago that seems pretty fitting for this topic. I’m not exactly sure where this comes from but I’m fairly sure that it is from a book called God in the Alley. I don’t remember the author.
”When I admit my brokenness and enter into more intimate relationships with God and his people, I am less inclined to judge others’ brokenness. Instead, I can dignify it, recognizing and mourning the deep pain and alienation that is the inevitable result of being sinful people living in a sinful world but rejoicing also that we are together in this, and that God is with us, meeting us at the very point of our need.”
bhang3 said,
June 3, 2008 at 7:46 pm
a story … not sure if it’s true, but i like to think that it is:
mother teresa, on her first day in calcutta was walking the streets when she came across a man face down on the ground. he was dying, covered in filth, sores, and flies. she turned him over, washed his body, and wiped his face clean. with tears in his eyes, he asked, “why are you doing this? i’m dying . . .” to which she responded, “because i love you”
how amazing . . . that even though she knew only the filthiest and depressing moments of this man’s life, she was still able to say those words. makes me want to cry every time i think about this story. it’s kind of a nice balance to our friend ivan’s, don’t you think? ^^