Universal Love Essay

973 Words4 Pages
Love is, as perhaps most people believe, “as natural as the birds and the bees.” But to truly debate love, love must be defined not only individually but also culturally. The Western world seems to believe that love is a particular way, with no deviation, but in other cultures love is seen, expressed, and understood in many different ways. Nel Noddings, a philosopher, says that love cannot be universal and that nurturing is natural, not ethical. In my personal opinion love can be universal and the following paper examines how love could possibly be universal in different cultures and around the world. In Margaret Trawick’s 1992 essay “Ideology of Love”, in the book Note on Love in a Tamil family, the author notes that “Love was by nature and by right hidden” in order to protect the loved one. The author illustrates the complexity of the love in this culture, illustrating how a mother should not look with love at her child, especially when the child was sleeping, for that invites disaster. She illustrates how love is expressed through becoming involved in someone’s business, but also how love exists silently and hidden. The following further offers the perspective of love in this particular culture: “Love was complexly implicated in expressions of pride and humility, servitude and domination, possession and renunciation. Through love, all these opposites were overturned. In acts of love, the humble became proud, the servant became master, and the renouncer became possessed.” It is interesting to note that Trawick indicates that many people often express more outward signs of love for people that they do not truly love. They will all but ignore their own children while praising and showering love on a relative’s child. They do this in order to protect their loved ones as it seems they partly associate too much outward love with spoiling someone or making
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