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Will Smith, Misunderstanding, and the Nature of Love
If you watched the Oscars on Sunday (or just watched the unedited YouTube clip afterward), you got to see the outside-in misunderstanding playing out in real-time. The comedian/host Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair, she got upset, her husband Will Smith got upset on her behalf, walked up on stage (in front of approximately 15,000,000 people, though the video now has over 50 million views), slapped Chris Rock across the face, swore at him several times, and then won the Academy Award for best actor and gave a very emotional speech about the nature of love:
“Apparently, love makes us do stupid, crazy things, but it’s OK, because, you know, love and stuff.”
Now whether you’re Team Chris or Team Will (and trust me, the internet is taking sides even if you’re not), the things that very few people are questioning are the ideas that:
- Love leads to upset, and the more love we have for something, the more that potential for upset grows
- Love can “make” us do things that are harmful to ourselves and/or others
- Love is a legitimate cause for and justification of violence in the world.
But if we’re living in the feeling of our thinking and not the feeling of the world, then the only thing that can “cause” us to feel…
