Limits to Unconditional Love...

This morning, I've been thinking about unconditional love. There are two news stories that triggered this off.

Bobby Cutts, a married police officer, killed his pregnant girlfriend. A high school friend, Myisha Ferrell, may have helped him dispose of the body ~ or at the minimum, helped him to cover up the crime.

In the later years of my generation, some group of academics came up with the idea that we should all love each other unconditionally. No matter what the behavior, we should stand by our friends and our families.

No limits.

Personally, I've never bought into the concept of unconditional love. I believe behavior has a lot to do with my feelings about someone. Maybe I'm just missing something, but if you kill your girlfriend, you're on your own. I will not help you dispose of the body and I will not help you cover it up, even if I think you are the nicest person I've ever met. Even if you tell me it was an accident and you didn't mean to do it. You do it. You own it.

Paris Hilton's parents are planning a big party for her when she is released from jail today or tomorrow. Kathy Hilton still claims that Paris' jail term was "unfair".

While I think it's obvious that her parents are trying to make money off of her, I can't help but wonder how that girl was raised. Was she constantly told "you're special", "everything you do is okay", "we will stand by you, no matter what you do"? It seems a significant part of responsible parenting is to teach kids that there are limits to their behavior, that they are not "special", that we all have to meet certain standards of behavior to have harmony in our lives.

I don't understand the whole "unconditional love" thing. What's that all about? In your opinion, is there such a thing? What would you do if confronted with either one of these situations, opposite ends of the continuum, but under the same umbrella?


Peace,


~Chani