Spoiled

As an only child, I'm often asked if I'm spoiled.  As a matter of fact, people don't usually ask, they simply state that I must be spoiled.  I never hesitate to answer no or disagree because while I did in fact have most everything I wanted as a child, I never placed much value on material things.  I never threw tantrums when I could not get what I wanted and later in my teens, material things were not as easy to come by in my family.  However, thinking about it now, I would say that I was spoiled in one specific way- and that was when it came to having my own time and space.  I was and still am very accustomed to having my own space and not having to share that space with anyone else if I choose not to.  I don't mean to say that I like being alone all the time but when I do want time to myself, I want it right then.  I dislike being around people, especially a lot of people, for extended periods of time.  So, yes in that way I guess I am spoiled.
Although everyone is not an only child, I believe many of us have become quite solitary.  I'm currently reading a book Calling In the One: 7 Weeks to Attract the Love of Your Life by Katherine Woodward Thomas.  It's more of a course than it is just a book just to read.  Right now I'm on Week 4 but Week 2 was so profound that I had to share some thoughts on the lessons contained in it.  Thomas writes about the peculiar isolation that human beings live in, especially in the west as compared to some eastern cultures.  Although I've honestly never thought about this, it resonated so strongly when I read it.

She writes:

For though it may seem that we Westerners place a high priority on love, in truth, we don't.  In spite of our plethora of love songs, romantic comedies, and romance novels, we're basically a "me first, you later" society.  I would even suggest that our preoccupation with romantic love is a symptom of our inner poverty.  In Gila: Life and Death of an American River, author Gregory McNamee writes An anthropologist once asked a Hopi why so many of his people's songs were about rain.  The Hopi replied, "Because water is so scarce.  Is that why so many of your songs are about love?"

I can't argue with the fact that overall we tend to be a self-absorbed culture so constantly focused on the individual and rarely focused on others and the community.  So, perhaps it is true that our solitary existence has left us thirsty for love and the unity of being one with another.  Often, even when we find the love we seem so obsessed with, we are still focused keenly on "what's in it for me" rather than the virtue and benefit of loving without expectations.  Thomas likens the obsession with falling in love as opposed to sustaining love to stopping at foreplay.
So with all our high ideals and noble quests for romantic love, heart-wrenching love songs and happily ever after movies, how open are we to love?  I don't just mean Eros- that butterflies in your stomach, fireworks when you kiss, romantic love- but also Philos and Agape (not just from God to man but among all people).  Perhaps if we embraced and embodied a higher love we would see that all are truly one.
Much love ♥