To Love

In kinder, more mature relationships, we’d make allowances for each other’s occasional times of regression.  Part of what it is to love another person is to be accommodating and generous to these needs.  Ideally, the strange behavior around regression is itself a sign that someone feels safe enough with you (or you with them) to be pathetic for a time.  To love another person isn’t only to admire their strengths and see what’s great about them.  It should also involve nursing and protecting them in their less impressive moments.  To ask for a hug is not simply to request a physical embrace.  It has a bigger meaning as an admission that one is not coping and as a plea for protection and support.  A hug is a symbol of what we are missing in our hypercompetitive, individualistic culture:  a positive admission of our dependence and fragility. 

School of Life, Calm