Love, Hate, and Indifference.

So, I had another epiphany on my run yesterday.

I was thinking about how people have moved in and out of my life.  That's a completely normal thing to happen so I'm not saying I'm worried about this.  It happens to everyone.  Sometimes it happens because lives go in different directions.  Sometimes it's because our commonality changes.  Sometimes our need for one another is modified enough that we go our separate ways.  And sometimes, sometimes we just no longer like each other.  And that brings me to my latest run-induced insight.

If I asked you to tell me what the opposite of love was what would you say?  Would you say "hate"?  I think most people would give me that answer.  But really, I think the complete opposite of hate is indifference.  Irrelevance.  Unimportance maybe.

You see, love is an emotion.  A sketchy, fickle emotion but an emotion just the same.  Love is full of ups and downs and those troublesome things called "feelings."  Love makes you feel good.  And sometimes it makes you feel bad for a while but probably so you can feel good when it resurfaces again. A cycle.  A cycle full of passion and depth and intensity.

And now let's talk about hate.  Hate is also an emotion.  It's just coming at us from the other end of the emotional spectrum.  Just like acids and bases are opposites on the pH scale but both have the power to dissolve and destroy objects, so it is with hate.  It has an equal amount of passion and depth and intensity.

Love comes barreling at us, full speed, from the left side while hate comes barreling at us, full speed, from the right side.  Makes sense, yes?

So I've realized that the opposite, contrasting feeling of love is indifference.  Within indifference there is the absence of passion.  There is the lack of depth and there is the void of feelings.   Complete disregard and uncaring.  Now that is the divergent sentiment to love.

I've come to believe that where hate exchanges places with love there is the presence of a deep anguish.  Maybe a trust has been broken or an expectation was not met.  There might be lies or cheating or cruel actions and words.  Hell, sometimes I think we might be so frustrated and guilt-ridden with our own actions that we project our self-hatred onto innocent folks.  But really it doesn't matter so much as to what took place or why.  The resulting hatred is a manifestation of unfulfilled expectations.  To ourselves or to others.

Where there is hate there is still fervor and feelings.  Where there is indifference, well, there is nothing left.  A void.  A vacuum.  And to me, that is a very scary idea.  When you arrive at that place I don't believe there is a return ticket back.