Steve’s Answer: What Is?
Love, faith, and hope.
everything else is temporary.Ron’s Reply:
Is there anything that is not temporary?
In my moment to moment universe, everything is constantly changing and all is impermanent. Things arise and things pass away. There is nothing to hold on to and no place to stand. All is quicksand!
All is motion!
It matters not whether I am looking at swirling clouds above, or watery waves below;
Even concepts like “Truth”, “Love,” and “God” have no fixed or permanent meaning for me. With each new day these are redefined.
Even my image of myself is not safe from this flux.
The collection of memories and opinions I call myself change with every new day. The I, I was, as a child, would not recognize the I, I am now.
Which “I” is the real me? Or is there a “real” me?
Steve’s Reply:
Is “LOVE” only a concept?
Though it is true that there are many different concepts of LOVE, does that make LOVE a concept? The word “love,” is a four letter symbol for something. It depends on how the word is used, as to what the symbol represents. The word “love,” in the context in which it is found, creates a concept. But, when one is actually touched by LOVE, it no longer matters what anyone’s concept is. It’s not the concept of love that touches us.
My answer to the question, “What is?” Was simply, “LOVE, FAITH, and HOPE. Everything else is temporary.” Clearly we both agree on the temporary nature of “every else,” so the issue at hand is LOVE. Does LOVE exist, or is it only a concept? If LOVE exists, it contains both faith, and hope. To paraphrase the best selling book of all times, “LOVE believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
Suppose a man had been born blind, and never saw the LIGHT of the sun, But had grown up forming concepts about what the world is like. If the day came when his eyes were opened, do you suppose he would, consider LIGHT, to be a concept any more? The reality of something, always supersedes the concept of it. If LOVE remains only a concept to my brother, it can only mean he has yet to be touched by it. But since LOVE does exist, there is always hope.
Ron’s Reply:
Steve’s Reply: So perhaps you now see that LOVE is a reality, and not mere concept; since the pictures you present are examples of that reality. Are you then now agreeing with me? It appears that you've simply put pictures to my words, leaving me nothing to respond to.
It sort of reminds me of our earlier years when you used to change sides in a debate if you suddenly felt the other side was right.What are you saying?