Member-only story
I was watching a show today and there was a question about love that got my attention.
Is love unconditional or transactional?
If it isn’t unconditional, then it must be transactional.
That is an interesting point of view and had me thinking for some time.
When I think of unconditional love, it is often with family — mostly a mother to a child. The rest seem like it has some condition attached to it.
It would be really tough to keep loving a person that would abuse and mistreat you. So isn’t that a condition?
The idea of unconditional love feels like a recipe for disaster if we think of conditions in that way. But why do I think of conditional love as somehow wrong or manipulative?
Societal pressure tells us that unconditional love is the best kind there is. But is it?
Not just love. Is unconditional anything a good thing?
Unconditional trust.
Unconditional faith.
Unconditional respect.
Unconditional obedience.
The older I get, the more I realize that I have a problem with any and all of the things that are unconditional. That requires a lack of investigation and curiosity that sounds dangerous to me.
Shouldn’t love and respect be earned?
