Cooperate In Love: Do you make distinctions when youaddress people yo...

Cooperate In Love: Do you make distinctions when youaddress people yo...: Do you make distinctions when you address people you meet? Do you see people in different ways? Do you practice condescension with peop...

Do you make distinctions when you address people you meet? Do you see people in different ways? Do you practice condescension with people? Do you pay attention to how other people look, are dressed and their speech? It seems that we all do so in some form or the other. This however is not right for we must look beyond a person's exterior. Every person must be treated like everyone else. This is a lesson we must bear in mind when we encounter people.

Dazzle the world with your range of variety by those you meet and the things you do. Robert Browning (1812-1889) did this with the range of variety in poems, plays, pamphlets by using all sorts of dramatic dialogues. His wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) was more successful than her husband in accomplishing this. In Sonnet 43, she declares a limitless love:

With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

There was no distinction in the love Elizabeth Browning shared. Her love was a supreme love that knows no limits nor distinctions. She would give her all for the love of mankind.

Cooperate But Do Not Control

Why would we want to try to control people? When the best results come when we all are cooperating at tasks. This is seen in the workplace, at play and in sports. An American farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez (1927-1993) observes, “From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.” By not seeing distinctions with people, but with cooperation, any official can bring dignity to a work place, which will be balanced appropriately when the interest of labor is involved.

A Brazilian novelist and lyricist Paulo Coelho (b. 1947) notes, “I can control my destiny, but not fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfill our destiny, but our fate is sealed.” Coelho has zeroed in on the choices that we make for better or worse in life. He stresses the importance of making these, for choices will determine the nature of relationships we have. We must aim to have a relationship where there is no distinction between a janitor and boss, where everyone is seen working agreeably and jointly for a common purpose that benefits all.

Put Wings To Your Ideas

It takes love to put wings to ideas. How a person views the world is important. It will not be in your best interest like the novelist and poet Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) that sees the world governed by sheer chance and natural laws. Why the indifference concerning what humans want and deserve? Life is not a series of coincidences with bleakness, pessimism and irony. That is why in loving Christ Jesus, our life will be made whole. As people we will discover that a divine reality governs all things. These are the sort of wings we must put to our ideas in dealing with people from every strata of society. Where everyone regardless of class, distinctions and creed must feel love, cared for and wanted.

Act Happy With Love

People must act happy and love each other. Carp diem, a Latin aphorism means living to the fullest right now, you have the opportunity “to seize the moment.” A person's success is not merely, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die,” says the Roman poet Horace (65BC-8BC), it is more than that. It is being capable of capturing the true essence of living. We have to be active and caring members in our life's journey, continuing to  love our fellowman, resisting distinctions, being good families and friends. Jesus Christ talks about loving our neighbor as our self. Let love be like that of the poet Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) that he captures in “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love:”

Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

Or, like that of the poet and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh (1552?-1618) in “The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd” - “To live with thee and be thy love.”

Marlowe and Raleigh's love is foremost on their mind and engrossing. They would give anything for love. Love has no distinctions. Jesus Christ set the example when He died for us on the cross. His love was more than love between the sexes, fatherly, motherly, or brotherly love, it was the ultimate love on which Christians have come to base their hope of salvation and eternal life. This kind of love knows no boundaries nor distinctions.