I will never be able to love my fellow men as I love my daughter, but I can learn to respect them in their differences.

Today I read this:

What was I made for, if not to carry love like a torch in the dark and ignite every heart I touch?

I stopped for a moment to realise the importance and the true meaning of this sentence.

“What was I made for, if not to carry love like a torch”.

Is love a torch? Does it lighten the “dark and ignites every heart it touches”?

I have a 7 and a half months old daughter. I don’t know if she loves me, if a 7 months old baby has the emotional complexity to be able to love or not, but I love her more than I’ve loved anything in this world. My torch lightens up when I see when, hug her, kiss her or see her smile. Especially when I see her smile. Basically, her simple existence makes mine worth more.

It’s the most beautiful love I’ve ever felt, the most pure and nurturing. The reason is that I don’t expect her to love me back.

She’s a baby, she’s my daughter and I love her just because of it. No expectations, no wishes, no disappointments because of something she did or didn’t do.

I know this will change in the future, when she becomes a much more complicated individual, maybe yelling “I hate you” in emotional outbursts, but she’ll still be my child and I’ll understand.

Love is indeed a torch. But it’s not only to lighten the darkness in others. Most of the times people choose to burn what creeps in the shadows, fearful of the unknown; not stopping for a moment to consider that maybe the creeper is a lost soul crying for help.

You can argue that love is the fuel of all the wars of men. There have been countless wars fought in the name of love. Love to freedom, to your homeland, to your ideals and most of all, love to your god. Then love becomes an empty word yelled to your enemy to justify your means.

Maybe true love is an ethereal fire that can only illuminate without burning.

What a wonderful world it would be if we all loved each other, truly loved each other. What a wonderful world it would be if we simply respected each other.

We all speak about love, but maybe we haven’t evolved enough yet to love beyond our own, for I have never loved anyone as I love my daughter and probably never will. Maybe we should stop trying to teach people to love each other and started to teach them how to respect your fellow men without understanding them.

For I will never be able to love my fellow men as I love my daughter, I’m not that illuminated, but I can learn to respect them in their differences.