Honey, we’ve got company!

This is what happens when people insist on living near where wild animals live. Builders ruin entire ecosystems and then name their suburban sprawls after the animals they killed and the vegetation they ruined. At the house where I lived until very recently, we occasionally spotted fox, deer, raccoons and once, coming home from work, I had a black bear inside my garage; never had an alligator ring my doorbell, though.

Six types of Love

“There is growing evidence that agape is in a dangerous decline in many countries. Empathy levels in the U.S. have declined sharply over the past 40 years, with the steepest fall occurring in the past decade. We urgently need to revive our capacity to care about strangers.”

“We expend too much energy on ‘falling in love’ and need to learn more how to ‘stand in love.’” – Erich  Fromm, psychoanalyst.

“Don't just seek EROS, but cultivate PHILIA by spending more time with old friends, or develop LUDUS by dancing the night away. Moreover, we should abandon our obsession with perfection. Don't expect your partner to offer you all the varieties of love, all of the time (with the danger that you may toss aside a partner who fails to live up to your desires.) Recognize that a relationship may begin with plenty of eros and ludus, then evolve toward embodying more PRAGMA or AGAPE.” – Pretty darn smart those ancient Greeks!

“By mapping out the extent to which all six loves are present in your life, you might discover you've got a lot more love than you had ever imagined — even if you feel an absence of a physical lover.”

Of course, none of the above different types of love would be possible without PHILAUTIA, which should not be confused with arrogance or narcissism: “If you like yourself and feel secure in yourself, you will have plenty of love to give others.”; "All friendly feelings for others are an extension of a man's feelings for himself." – Aristotle 

More here:

 http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/the-ancient-greeks-6-words-for-love-and-why-knowing-them-can-change-your-life

This article hit home, and I will need to refer to it periodically.

May God help us all

“Donald Trump is now the leader of the Republican Party. It's real – he is one step away from the White House. Here's what else is real: Trump has built his campaign on racism, sexism, and xenophobia. There's more enthusiasm for him among leaders of the KKK than leaders of the political party he now controls. He incites supporters to violence, praises Putin, and, according to a columnist who recently interviewed him, is ‘cool with being called an authoritarian’ and doesn't mind associations with history's worst dictators. He attacks veterans like John McCain who were captured and puts our service members at risk by cheerleading illegal torture. In a world with ISIS militants and leaders like North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Un conducting nuclear tests, he surrounds himself with a foreign policy team that has been called a 'collection of charlatans,' and puts out contradictory and nonsensical national security ideas one expert recently called ‘incoherent’ and ‘truly bizarre.’ What happens next will test the character for all of us – Republican, Democrat, and Independent. It will determine whether we move forward as one nation or splinter at the hands of one man's narcissism and divisiveness. I know which side I'm on, and I’m going to fight my heart out to make sure Donald Trump’s toxic stew of hatred and insecurity never reaches the White House.” – Elizabeth Warren, United States Senator from Massachusetts, in light of the last night's Primaries (underscore is mine)