How Radical Love Changes Everything.

[Music]

when my cameraman and i

arrived at the scene of the house fire

we knew that it had been fatal

death has a way of lingering in the air

after taking a life

this time it had taken the life of a

three-year-old boy

there were many people gathered at the

house that morning but as soon as i saw

her i knew exactly who she was

she was sitting on a rock she was gazing

off into the distance

her pants were soiled she was obviously

in deep pain and in shock she was the

grieving mother

as journalists were taught to get the

story and go

to have respect but not involvement and

to disconnect quickly in order to tell

the story well

i always struggled with this and that

morning

as i held my microphone to this woman’s

face

i realized that i was not doing the

right thing

what i wanted to do was take my hand and

just put it on her shoulder

a simple gesture of love that said i

don’t know why these things happen

i am so sorry this has happened to you

and i am sorry that you have to endure

this pain

but i didn’t do it somewhere along the

line we began to believe

that love has to exist within the

confines of a relationship to be love

we talk about love all the time one love

love is love

love thy neighbor but do we really have

what it takes so do we understand

what it takes to love a stranger

i think we can and i think we do i think

that love

is in the act of love it’s in the

patience it’s in the kindness

it’s in the long suffering it’s in the

enduring

so why didn’t i just take my hand and

put it on this woman’s shoulder

as i felt to do i didn’t do it because i

was afraid

i was afraid that she would say to me i

don’t know you

don’t touch me i was afraid that

her relatives would say that i was

exploiting her emotions for a story

and i was afraid that my cameraman would

go back to the office and tell everyone

that golda couldn’t get her emotions in

check and therefore

could not be objective and therefore

could not be a good journalist

many people believe that the opposite of

love

is hate others believe that the opposite

of love is indifference

i believe that the opposite of love is

fair but i believe that perfect love

drives out fear love that comes from a

place that is unconditional that wants

nothing in return

allows us to love radically and to show

up in places where many people don’t

want to go

radical love allows us to say to the

person that we’ve wronged i am so sorry

please forgive me

radical love allows us to come to the

defense of the

marginalized and unpopular radical love

allows us to speak up when everyone else

stays quiet i often think about my

interaction with that mother on that

morning

and i feel shame about it about the way

that i handled that story

but it did change the way that i see

every single

interaction with human beings i think

of all of my interactions with people

whether personally or professionally as

first being grounded in love

they are human beings just like me who

have fears insecurities and doubts

who love and desire to be loved

and all of our differences every last

one

comes second to that imagine the people

that we could be

imagine the example we could be

imagining the healing that we could

achieve

if we all went about with our

interactions in this way

if we thought of people as being just

like us and if we aim to love them

first before our differences came into

the picture

i think that that is radical and i

believe that we can love fearlessly

so let’s give it a try

[Music]