philosophies of love

today was a very exciting day in philosophy of love class. we talked about storge! (YES!) and i got to learn some fun dimensions of this specific and special type of love that i didn't know before...and the more that i learn about it the more i like it. but instead of just talking about it i'll tell you some of what i learned and why i like it so much more that i know more about it. :-)

the text of the day was the affection chapter of c.s. lewis' the four loves. he used the word affection for storge but i like the word storge so i'll use them interchangeably. first, we talked about words to associate with affection like fondness, tenderness, kindness, or compassion. so many good words! i like them all so much and they all make me so happy (by the end of the class i was grinning from ear to ear and i might have been bouncing up and down in my chair either from caffeine or excitement {lol, prof hamilton understands :-)}.

then we moved on to talking about how storge is the humblest of loves, that it doesn't demand things and that it has a quiet nature about it (almost like it enjoys serving and helping just because, and it doesn't actually want the credit for it). after this, we moved right along to discussing how storge is distinct from all of the other sorts of love and how it might lead to or overlap other types of love but it can also stand all by itself, it can be the medium on which other loves are drawn but it doesn't need to be drawn on to be beautiful.

finally (because it's only a fifty minute class) we spoke about the possibility of mistaking storge for other types of love and the dangers of such a mistake and we finished with talking about how affection can bring unity to those who might not be united in any other way (like brothers and sister in Christ who inhabit all parts of the globe!).

that is the update for now, i'll tell you more once i write the five page paper that i get to write on storge love :-)

oh look, a book!

so, i'm writing this book and it's nearly finished...a bit of editing and cover making and stuff and it'll be ready. but i haven't told you very much about this book from the time that i started this blog until now. maybe i should tell you a bit more about it?

i don't actually remeber what i've written to this point about what storge is actually about but here goes:

storge is based on the fact that i have four brothers biologically and hundreds of thousands of brothers by adoption (and you do too!). i realized awhile back that there are approximately 3 billion men out there that i'm NOT going to marry, but most of the time i focus on that one man that i will: how to treat him, when and how will i find him, what will he be like, ect. (which is good, because he's really, really important ;) but in doing this i forget that there are all of these other men around me who are my brothers and who i should be loving with the love of Jesus (read John 15:12 and 1 timothy 5:1-2)

i'd neglected my brothers for so long that i didn't know how to see them or relate to them on any level except the potential-romantic-partner level. this made me sad. so i started to pray about it and talk about it and read about it and listen for it to show up and live it (i'm in training still :). eventually God taught me some of what it means to be a sister, how to be a sister, how to see my brothers in a way that glorifies Him, and how to treat them in a way that is helpful instead of harmful and that builds them up instead of hinders them.

yep, that's kind of what the book is about. it's about learning to love your brothers as brothers...nothing more and nothing less than siblings in the family of God.