Beka’s Reviews > All About Love: New Visions > Status Update

"In the book a Heart As Wide As the World, Sharon Salzberg reminds us:
'The practice of generosity frees us from the sense of isolation that arises from clinging and attachment.'"

"In patriarchal society men who want to break with domination can best begin the practice of love by being giving, by being generous. This is why feminist thinkers extolled the virtues of male parenting. Working as caregivers to young children, many men are able to experience for the first time the joy that comes from service."

"Much popular self-help literature normalizes sexism. Rather than linking habits of being, usually considered innate, to learn behavior that helps maintain + support male domination, they act as though these differences are not value laden or political but are rather inherent + mystical."

"Often we take friendships for granted even when they are the interactions where we experience mutual pleasure. We place them in a secondary position, especially in relation to romantic bonds. This devaluation of our friendships creates an emptiness we may not see when we are devoting all our attention to finding someone to love romantically or giving all our attention to a chosen loved one."

"Many of us learn as children that friendship should never be seen as just as important as family ties.

However, friendship is the place in which a great majority of us have our first glimpse of redemptive love + caring community. Learning to love in friendships empowers us in ways that enable us to bring this love to other interactions with family or with romantic bonds."