I'll start my first post with what I've been reading lately. I started the year 2008 with a wonderful book - "The Art of Loving" (TAL) by Erich Fromm. It's one of those books which one needs to "chew and chew" and "digest and digest" and then some. Fromm (1900 - 1980) was a psychoanalyst who emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1933 and wrote several books during his career. TAL is a small book, but packs so much value, I have never come across a book whose "value/sentence" density is so high!!. It's also such an important book for anyone who wants to learn just what it means to be a "human" (does this leave out anyone on the planet??).
"Love is an act of will, a power of the soul." says Fromm. "Love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an *attitude*, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of the person to the world as a whole, not toward one "object" of love."
Fromm talks about the joy of giving and the four elements of loving - care, knowledge, respect, and responsibility. He discusses the practice of love and that whosoever intends to master the art of loving must give up narcissism and learn to be objective. Discipline, concentration and patience are important character traits for the art of loving.
We learn God knows so many things in our life, things for our survival (computer science, mechanical engineering), things for our pleasure (playing a guitar, skiing). I believe we all can and should learn a little as to what it is to be human and how are we doing in that realm....
Love,
Sunjay
"Love is an act of will, a power of the soul." says Fromm. "Love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an *attitude*, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of the person to the world as a whole, not toward one "object" of love."
Fromm talks about the joy of giving and the four elements of loving - care, knowledge, respect, and responsibility. He discusses the practice of love and that whosoever intends to master the art of loving must give up narcissism and learn to be objective. Discipline, concentration and patience are important character traits for the art of loving.
We learn God knows so many things in our life, things for our survival (computer science, mechanical engineering), things for our pleasure (playing a guitar, skiing). I believe we all can and should learn a little as to what it is to be human and how are we doing in that realm....
Love,
Sunjay
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