Unconditional Love
The following post was written as a letter to my daughter which was in response to a conversation we had over breakfast. She is 19 very cute and gullible. Her friends whom she knows from high school take advantage of her financially and physically. She has become a slave to them in that she pays their way and helps to pay for their baby's care. She also provides them with free sitting. Her freinds, 19 unwed parents, unemployed, lives in mother's boy-friend's house with with at least 5 other people.
Unconditional Love
"We hold these Truths to be self-evident,
that all People are created equal,
that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Love that is unconditional can endure heart ache, disappointment, pain and for some even abuse. The best example of unconditional love is the love a dog has for its master. Even after we scold them for misdeeds they come to us for love and will give love to us the very next minute. Another example of unconditional love is the love between parent and child, brothers and sisters or other family relations. These bonds of love can and often do withstand many trials and for some the value of this love is so high that we will not relinquish it at any price.
It is important that we do not confuse the value of the relationship with our unwillingness to accept change. The U.S, Declaration of Independence makes reference to peoples who are unwilling to shed the burden of oppression because of an unwillingness to change. It goes on to say that it is the right and duty to throw off those who reduce us to despotism (repression) and that we must look to new ways to insure a brighter future. This is the same in loving relations. We must stand with our family in times of hardship and it is right to expect family to stand with us in our times of need but these ties must not be abused or taken to the extreme. No person can endure continuous neglect or abuse of friendship and should not be expected to by those we love. People who take from us and never give back, hurt us without remorse will always treat us this way until we make some personal declarations and draw a line that no one must cross, not our abusers/oppressors nor their agents/friends on their behalf. Once our threshold has been breached we must look for self-preservation and preservation of our assets as well. When the line drawn has been crossed we must look for new people to help fill the needs of unconditional love. It is very unlikely that those who would treat us with disrespect and abuse our feelings ever really loved us or would be at our side in times hardship.
“Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and 1Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.” 1 use something without the right to do so
Let no one deprive you of your rights
Let no person take advantage of you; I am sure that if we all took an inventory and evaluation of our friends and family we could find more than one that needs to be reminded of where the line has been drawn and put on notice that repairs are required for relationships to continue. Those who expect us to provide handouts are not friends. We all need a hand up on occasion but it us who must make a way for our own success no one can do it for us by way of a hand out and no one is entitled.
Give a man a fish; he eats today, teach a man to fish and he can eat every day.
