The Logic of Love

Chapter 29: 3D Love

When you love love, then love loves you, too.

-Bruce Cockburn

3D love refers to the process of developing a good attitude through learning to love learning to love learning to love. If this makes no sense to you, don't bother rereading it. The explanation is what this chapter is all about.

In order to appreciate an attitude of 3D love, we’ll start with the first step: learning to love. Taking on the task of learning to love reflects the activation of freewill for a chosen purpose. The purpose is to love others. This is the first dimension of love. Learning to love reflects the recognition that, as imperfect beings, a gap exists between talking the talk and walking the walk. Saying that we hold love to be the highest value is not the same as living that way. Idealism does not make us hypocrites, but it does not make us perfect either, thank God. This gap between our current manifestations of love and our ideals creates the opportunity to work with God in being the architects of our own perfection. Savoring this opportunity is what 3D love is all about.

In order to begin savoring this gift, we must value learning to love learning to love. (This is two-dimensional love.) With or without faith in God, the path of love is difficult. People get crucified, shot, and beaten up every day for their commitment to love. This is literally true for some of us and metaphorically true for all of us. One does not have to be a high-profile spiritual or political leader in order to experience persecution for the sake of love. External opposition, however, is the easy part. Added to this challenge is the incessant clamoring of the ego for self-aggrandizement and constant gratification. Put all this together with what was stated in the previous chapter about how love sometimes begets sadness, and it’s easy to see why two-dimensional love is no joy ride.

The attainment of a noble character requires loyalty, courage, idealism, trust, and hope. These traits, which are essential for the maximization of love, are not developed without a struggle. Understanding the value of this struggle is at the heart of two-dimensional love. Much of this book has been dedicated to creating this type of understanding. Appreciating the Freewill Love Factor, balancing justice with mercy, embracing the opportunity to be the architects of our own perfection, and taking responsibility for our interpretation of evil are all integral to the process of learning to love learning to love.

But two-dimensional love, the intellectual appreciation of learning to love, does not necessarily provide us with a good attitude. Understanding what is the right thing to do and feeling good about it do not always go hand in hand. As the children of God, we quite naturally seek that inner peace which surpasses all understanding. As a state of being, 3D love is sometimes expressed as laughing through the tears. As a state of doing, 3D love remains calm during a crisis. Learning to love learning to love learning to love is what takes us beyond just understanding to feeling good about doing good. 3D love embraces the process of, actually appreciates the opportunity for, learning to love learning to love. This is the best definition I have for a "good attitude." I hope it helps because, in the words of Forrest Gump, “That’s all I have to say about that,” . . . for now.

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