Do you love?

Do we love?

Do we love another person less because he or she happened to be born in another country and we happened to be born in this one? Do we love her less because she has a different skin color? Or speaks a different language? Do we love him less because he worships a different god — or no god at all? Do we love her less because she was born much more impoverished than us, or lost her wealth, or because she was born with much greater wealth or became wealthy? Do we love him less because he is homeless? Do we love her less because she doesn’t share our political beliefs? Do we love her less because she is tall or heavy or short or thin? Do we love him less because he is ill? Or old? Or gay?

Do we love him less because he made a mistake?

Do we love her less because we never met her? Do we love her less because she is not part of our we?

The answer, we think, is no, of course not, and the reality is mostly yes. That gap and equally our usual unawareness of it explain much of what’s ill in this world … and in each of us.