On love...

The love for equals is a human thing -

of friend for friend, of brother for brother.

It is to love what is loving and lovely.

The world smiles.

The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing-

for those who suffer, for those who are poor,

the sick, the failures, the unlovely.

This is compassion,

and it touches the heart of the world.

The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing-

to love those who succeed where we fail,

to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice,

the love of the poor for the rich,

of the black man for the white man.

The world is always bewildered

by its saints.

And then there is the love for the enemy-

love for the one who does not love you

but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain.

The tortured’s love for the torturer.

This is God’s love.

It conquers the world.

-Fredrick Buechner The Magnificent Defeat

Amazing.  It precedes the Forward of my latest read. - what a hook!  Praise God. This hook holds all time and knowledge.