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]