STUDENT VOICES
By Taylor Coleman 

I want to talk to you about love. When I asked people what love meant to them, they said love was a feeling. When I asked my mother, she stated the fact that she risked her life to give me life is what makes love. I’ve thought about this topic all my life and recently I gifted myself with the novel All About Love New Visions by Bell Hooks. In the book, Hooks states, “To truly love we must learn to mix various ingredients –care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well as honest and open communication.” What this statement implies is that Love is an action, a choice one can make in their daily practice. Growing up I’ve been subject to many instances that clinicians have categorized as traumatic; I respect their assessment. I know that everything that I accomplished and every interaction I have, I lead with Love; even when the occasion doesn’t call for it. Love is something that can be applied to politics, education, healthcare, and businesses. People believe that love is a privilege because the misconception of Love is being able to provide for someone. That appeals to capitalism and the exchange of money and goods, insinuating that Love is transactional. I’m not saying this idea of love is wrong. Love is a concept just like ethics that is subjective to one’s relationship to humanity. A person’s idea of right or wrong, good or bad determines what they believe is ethical. Love, even as an action, is a choice that one chooses based on their relationship with the idea of Love and how it has impacted them within their community and themselves. Love can be revolutionary and powerful. It can transform society from a dictatorship to autocracy. Ways that I implement Love in my everyday life is respecting everyone’s identity and experience, commitment to overcoming personal bias and understanding how those biases can create obstacles for one’s growth, trusting my intuition and experiences that have guided me to making healthy choices, honesty without intentional harm and open communications with people in my community, recognition towards achievements, and affection towards knowledge and growth. These values that I live by can be challenging at times, but I try to uphold this method and when I can’t, I give myself grace and learn from the experience.

One of the questions presented is, “Why is morality essential to leading a fulfilled and happy life?” It’s important because fulfillment and happiness correlate to longevity of life. A common theme today (especially amongst the millennial generation) is mental health illness and how it impacts individuals’ day-to-day life. Some of the diagnoses that plague communities are Depression, Anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and Schizophrenia. Factors to consider are environmental, social, and biological that can indicate the cause of a person’s diagnosis. So many people deal with this daily, yet we believe people must earn compassion through hard work and their positionality in life. An example of this is as following: Kanye West, known as a successful music producer and rapper, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after exhibiting episodes proceeding the death of his mother. When it comes to bipolar disorder treatment, a lot of mental health providers primarily focus on medication that sedates a person or at minimum makes them appropriate to society’s standards. Rarely do they take into consideration traumatic factors that impacted an individual’s mental shift and alternatives for a person who may not be comfortable being medicated. Kanye West openly admitted that he was not being medicated and that was the reason for his antisemitic outburst. As a collective, the world understood his diagnosis and condition but did not accept the behavior he exhibited. Fast forward to last month during the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards and actor John Davidson, who was diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome, was filmed actively disrespecting African Americans by yelling out the N word and the BBC was implicit in echoing that hate slur by broadcasting it afterwards. The collective response for televising racism was justifying a man who has a diagnosis and asking the world to lead with compassion; that same compassion that was not afforded to Kanye West. I believe that instant compassion was weaponized to disregard a marginalized group that is prone to systemic injustice and diminish their experience with that type of language.

Compassion is not something a person must earn; it is a skill that can advance the interactions we have in the world that can unite us as human beings. Understandably people practice discernment when they are utilizing compassion. People have shared social media posts and conversations in social gatherings about how they have encountered someone that they empathized with only to find out later the person manipulated them and victimized themselves. I have experienced this in my family dynamic; it is heartbreaking and it can change your brain function to question your own morals and beliefs. In those moments, it is important to pour compassion into yourself. A difficult task, but if a friend came to you and told you they were hurt by doing the right thing, a decent human being would not berate them and highlight their shortcomings. I’ve come to learn through my therapeutic journey that when someone is exhibiting harmful behavior, there are some factors to consider: was this behavior displayed to them during their developmental stages, are they emotionally in turmoil, and what is the underlying goal of their harmful tactic. More likely than not, hurt people hurt people. It is when we share unwavering tenderness that someone who engages in harmful behavior learns another way of connecting to their community that doesn’t hurt the person or themselves. Love is transformative and can help people, communities, and civilization grow exponentially.

I encourage anyone who wants to incorporate Love as a practice into their life to check out Isaac Andrew Sanders’ Love as Action: An Ode to Bell Hooks website. Isaac is a 3rd-year PhD student who created a curriculum for individuals to access on their own free time, an understanding of Love, considering it as a choice, and the curriculum incorporates activities that students can do themselves or as a group with guided discussion questions and excerpts to read. This practice is an ethical obligation to society because without Love, individuals are disconnected from humanity. That practice of individualism rewires the brain to only consider oneself in all circumstances. I believe this line of thinking is how we got to where we are politically in the United States; most Americans were looking out for their best interest and did not actively consider the greater good of the country and its citizens.

References

Hooks, B. (2000). All About Love: New Vision. New York: Harper Collins.

Sanders, I. A. (2026, February 14). Love as Action: An Ode to Bell Hooks. Retrieved from All
Time Curriculum: https://sites.google.com/view/alltimecurriculum/syllabi/love-as-
action?authuser=0#h.wmezeqkptzng