Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
~ Martin Luther King
Although Dr. King was thinking about the irrational and ignorant hatred between races, there are other things that can apply to this quote.
I’m thinking about yesterday’s blog about long-term relationships. Sometimes a sense of ‘being wronged’ or ‘deserving more’ creeps into the relationship, and if it is unchecked then hatred takes the reins. When the relationship feels lop-sided, when one is feeling held back or impeded by the weaknesses or inclinations of the other, then a sense of injustice brews hatred. When a couple has hatred simmering amid their love, all that is beautiful and unique in their relationship is lost. I like that phrase ‘vital unity.’ Couples desperately need to have a vital unity to face child-rearing, long-term commitment, and the stresses of modern life.
When hatred creeps in, there is no finding joy in each other and the relationship. Objectivity is gone, and the relationship erodes.
Dr. King knew what he was talking about.
Shawn L. Bird 