all about love with bell hooks

In her \”love song to the nation\”, All About Love, bell hooks elucidates American’s relationship with love, each other, and themselves. She flows from example to example to convince the reader of the emptiness that we have created in our culture, but also of the spiritual growth and love that we are capable of working towards.This book was published in 2000, and in 2020 it is as relevant as ever. All About Love is life-affirming and a must read. I felt like something within me healed from reading the book, so I will reread it as well. Check out some quotes from the book:

“Contemplating death has always been a subject that leads me back to love”“Male fantasy is seen as something that can create reality, whereas female fantasy is regarded as pure escape”“To truly love we must learn to mix various ingredients – care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well as honest and open communication”“The heart of justice is truth telling, seeing ourselves and the world the way it is rather than the way we want it to be”“The choice to love is a choice to connect – to find ourselves in the other”“Loneliness is painful; solitude is peaceful”You can’t appreciate what others do for you when you assert that’s what they are supposed to do. Honor everyone’s choice to serve, rather than their apparent duty“As long as we feel shame, we can never believe ourselves worthy of love”“Everything terrible is really something helpless that wants help from us”“Anyone who does not know love is still in death” – 1 JOHN 3:14“People who cannot suffer can never grow up, can never discover who they are” – James Baldwin