Another Love Worth Celebrating

One could be forgiven at this time of year for thinking that there are only a few kinds of love—most obviously, romantic love, love of family, or love of friends.

But another love also deserves to be celebrated, and those of us who identify as mission-driven individuals, changemakers, activists, volunteers, or simply concerned citizens know deeply and well.

It is a love of the world—or, in the Latin, amor mundi.

The Galapagos, where I was fortunate enough to travel last year—a place that, like no other I have ever seen, shows what a protected part of the world looks like.

This is what political philosopher Hannah Arendt aspired to live by. Indeed, amor mundi was so central to Arendt’s life that her biography is titled For Love of the World.

Love of the world (which, certainly in Ardent’s case, was not limited to the natural world) differs from the love of certain special people we celebrate on Valentine’s Day – yet not entirely.

After all, for many of us, the love of children or future generations inspires our efforts to make the world a better place. And our love of partners, family, and friends does not exist in a vacuum.

The world is home to the people we love. So, to work for the love of the world is an expression of love for others—an act of love on behalf of others.

Perhaps that is why Arendt also had a genius for friendship, as her biographer Elisabeth Young-Bruehl wrote.

Perhaps it is also why, in the wake of the Holocaust, she was able to teach the world about the origins of totalitarianism and “the banality of evil” – and to do so with a great good spirit, observing that “even in the darkest times we have a right to some illumination.”

So, this Valentine’s Day, I, for one, celebrate (and thank) every one of you who attempts to make the world a better place or is willing to reckon with how you might.