Love – Feb 2015
Love & Complexity: A Leap to a New Way of Management
PART 1
Samir Makarem
Love is such a wonderful thing! But then how is it possible that there be such things, feelings and emotions that exist, fade away and exist back again? Does love fall into this category? What is Love really? For Wittgenstein “Love is not a feeling”, he would ask “is it part of the language of games?” So if I have to imagine someone else’s love on the construction of my own, I have to imagine love which I do not feel on the model of the love which I do feel. So could love be a construction from what we read, from interactions in what we do and hence not just a way of feeling or just a way of acting? Does answering this question make us feel especially upset? If love is a social act, can management, also as a social act, benefit from the findings on what is Love?
Many of us often ask the question “Do I Love him or her?” Is there something wrong in using the concept of love in this manner? Is this the real love we search for? Could there be a misunderstanding between love and the concept of love? Following Nietzsche’s philosophy, the concept of love might be of something that simply doesn’t exist. For Nietzsche, using the same logic, freedom of the will does not exist. We confuse ourselves thinking we are free because the idea was introduced to us by others, sometime people of influence. Freedom of the will became a misrecognition embodied into our habitus. I do not imply that there is no such thing as love, but rather the incompatibility of the concept of love that we embody may be too idealistic or too romantic. Could we come up with a new concept that can give us more than just what we foist above? Emotions over time come and go, and wane, depending on internal and external factors, where dispositions interact with each other and with the other aspects of the context where it happens, so that the complex array of interlocking dispositions can evolve over a long period. Hence to have a concept of love that swirls around a single simple state, with a common kind of feeling; like that of Romeo when he fell deeply in love with Roseline, but then catches a glimpse of Juliet and his whole body shacked, is to make a mistake, just as it is for freedom. Only once the complexity of love is appreciated can its depths be appreciated.
I want to propose an alternative assemblage to love. I come not to bury love, but to ‘complexify’ it in what coheres in our encounters so that love emerges, bring all its elements from erotic feelings; to its consummation, up to how can we make it sustainable and eternal.
As we go through our daily lives, we experience things as either simple or complicated. Somehow, many assert that the simple things, we are usually are sure of, they are the things we have “figured it out”, or so we think. However, the complicated things seemed to be the ones we have to analyze a bit further; those that we spend time to find a way out of, a solution, or answer. But it is those “simple” things, really, that may actually be more complex than we assumed to start with. And then we ask ourselves how can something so simple be so complex at the same time? So love as a simple emotion and so complex at the same time makes all the sense and none, all at the same time. When someone asks; “Are you in love with him?” The answers, in most cases, are known, but when someone asks “Why are you in love with him?” You actually run speechless, you start thinking how sure you are of this love, you point to facts, care and things, but finding it difficult to explain it to others on those other feelings and emotions that are difficult to pull apart.
If we speak of love as jouissance we bring the body into action with the other. And both men and women are completely different on how they relate with the Other. It is this simple assemblage of things from which love emerges; giving rise to a complex way that cannot explain its components.
The word “complex” I use rather broadly. Some philosophers tend to regard an entity as complex only if it is composite. In my definition, entities can be inherently complex even though they have no components; the whole emerges from the strong interactions of parts, which cohere into a new whole, where no one can ever take apart the whole to find its parts or components. Love could be the result of an organological assemblage where the mind interacts with other vital organs and organ-izations (the other) seeking jouissance. And so I begin to think of the ‘complex’ answer to the simple question of what is Love? Only to realize that it might be more than just one answer and then ask ourselves if we can use it in an organizational context?
Heart Covalent…
Mirroring nearer to delicate thoughts wandering away,
Places – near or far stretched per se.
Enigmatic touch and feel of that breath,
Serene Looks – how could one even stealth.
Casual, astral, physical… all bodies wildly aligned,
Amalgamation Extraordinaire – akin to rivers mingling lines.
Meandering through the channels divine and caves like shrine,
Grazing through those edges toughened across time.
Surrendering all egos… traversing conscious redefined,
Subtle Gestures – somehow arousing deeds wild un-petrifying.
Furrowing universes parallel – conceptualizing all in mind,
Reaching out to that soul fatale – communing through layers mellifluously intertwined…
… Meenakshi Mukherjee … Professor – Gen.Ed. PPSI
Valentine’s Random Acts of Kindness; Pay It Forward
by Catherine Lee
Valentine’s Day can be wonderful and special when you are in love, when you have a special someone to surprize or make plans with, and when you have people to raise a glass with to celebrate love. This holiday keeps Hallmark and florists, jewelers and chocolatiers, restaurants and pubs busier than at Christmas, and many people will be receiving treasures and treats from the special someone in their lives.
But there are lots of people who are alone or not near their loved ones. These people do not enjoy a holiday that requires at least two to celebrate cupid’s day with. And although Valentine’s Day is only one day, “Random Acts of Kindness Week” runs all week from February 9th to the 15th. Really. There is a website for this and everything. So that must make it official. It also gives us all scope to share a little love to others who may not be receiving any.
You have a whole week to practice a different kind of love during Valentine’s week – the love of thoughtfulness and the love of compassion and the love of appreciation. There are so many small things that can be done to brighten the day of someone who is not expecting a kindness or a smile or a simple kind word. These are all those little things that can make someone’s day and help them feel a bit less invisible.
Invisible people are sometimes those that we see everyday day, but we don’t really see them, like the cleaner in the washroom, or the ticket taker at Cineplex, or the cashier at Loblaw’s, or the quiet student with no group of friends, or the older lady walking home with heavy groceries. Invisible people are also our neighbours who may be shut in due to age or weather conditions or mobility limitations. It could also be someone who has had a recent loss of a loved one and is having difficulty coping. These are some of the people who are the perfect ones for us all to reach out to during this “Random Acts of Kindness Week” and Valentine’s Day.
Please think about taking up this challenge to spread a different kind of love this week.
Here are a few ideas to get you started on your mission:
- Pick up a couple of extra dinners at Savoir Faire and drop into your elderly neighbour’s home with them. A delightful and tasty surprize.
- Make eye contact and smile when you see someone who has been invisible to you and wish them a good day.
- Add a loonie into the parking meter beside yours that is about to expire.
- Buy a small box of kids Valentine’s cards and send them off to Algonquin colleagues with appreciation notes on them, and give them a chuckle.
- When you are in the line at The Tea Shoppe, pay for the next person in line and encourage them to pay it forward some time to someone else, sharing the love.
- Pick up the phone and call your old friend that you keep meaning to call. It will warm both of your hearts.
- Give an unexpected tip to someone who has been making a difference in your days by being friendly and smiling. And watch to see their face light up with delighted surprize.
- If you know someone who has a partner away in the military or who is away on business, ask them in for a glass of wine or a cup of tea and something sweet. It will brighten the day for you both.
- I have a neighbour who has lost her husband recently, so Valentine’s Day will be pretty blue for her. A simple card in her mail box will let her know that she is not forgotten.
- Influence others to be kind with your act of small kindnesses, and it may just spread out with sharing the love.
Here is the link to BuzzFeed’s many ideas for quick and simple Random Acts of Kindness. This will give you even more ideas or may suggest other ways to you of how you can add a little love and thoughtfulness into the lives of people you don’t know or who you know only a little.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/101-easy-ideas-for-random-acts-of-kindness#.fg9mx6d8X
Please do something for me as well. When you have done a small act of kindness or shared a little love with someone, please share that with us too and let us know how you have made the world just a bit better for someone else. This may pay it forward to someone else and be an inspiration. And so on.
Whatever your situation, I wish you and the people in your life a wonderful Valentine’s Day, and a “Random Act of Kindness Week” full of small bits of joy, many smiles, lots of friendly hugs, and a warm glow in many hearts.
