All about Love: Love Song to the Nation Book 1

hooks discusses healing as an essential component to loving practice. She begins the essay by simply asserting, “love heals” (109). In learning to love, even in the face of woundedness, “we can live as if born again, not forgetting the past but seeing it in a new way” (109). Learning to accept one’s past, no matter how troubled, is where healing begins.

One essential component to healing is forgiveness. While shame and resentment keep individuals from healing, “compassion and forgiveness reconnect us” (217). Learning to make amends with oneself and others “is the gift compassion and forgiveness give us” (217). Through forgiveness, people can accept themselves, others, and the uncontrollable circumstances of their lives.

Commitment to healing is both an act of love and an act of hope; love is not possible without hope. Hope—a type of positive thinking—motivates individuals to move forward toward love, light, and possibility.

The author also returns to the idea of living simply. Although she underscores the importance of sensuality using quotes from the American writer James Baldwin, she adds that one of the biggest threats to sensuality is overstimulation and overindulgence—hence the importance of living simply.

hooks began writing about love in response to the widespread cynicism about love in contemporary culture. She recognizes cynicism as “the greatest barrier to love” (219). It is deeply unproductive in loving practice because it is “rooted in doubt and despair” (219). Cynicism about love is the direct result of fear; those who wish to know love must first let go of fear. When a person loves, “[they] no longer allow [their heart] to be held captive by fear” (221).

hooks shares that believing in divine love comforted her as a child “when I felt overwhelmed by loneliness and sorrow” (225). The act of speaking her heart to God made her feel less alone.

For hooks, angels play an important role in loving practice. Angels are the “guardian spirits who watch, protect, and guide us throughout our lives” (225). They can take many forms, be they human or spirit, and their presence is always welcome; as a culture, people view angels as “always bringing news that will give our hearts ease” (226). The cultural obsession with angels speaks to a collective longing to return to paradise, a place of eternal goodness and love.

The first time hooks heard stories about angels was as a child in church. She learned there that angels were “wise counselors,” ready to guide humans through life and help cultivate their spiritual growth (227). The story that captivated her most was that of Jacob’s encounter with the angel on his way home. A divine voice tells Jacob that he must travel to the land of his ancestors. On that journey, he wrestles with an angel while walking along a stream at night. The angel he encounters is not an enemy but instead a witness “enabling him to receive the insight that there is joy in struggle” (230). Facing his fear head on, Jacob “move[s] through darkness into the light” (230). The angel comes to Jacob as a blessing, one he cannot receive until he first lets go of fear and opens “his heart to be touched by grace” (230). hooks points out that it is no coincidence that Jacob’s blessing comes in the form of a wound. hooks argues that woundedness “is not a cause for shame”; instead, it is “necessary for spiritual growth and awakening” (231). Shame keeps people from healing. Jacob’s story is a reminder that “embracing our wound is the way to heal” (233). His insistence on confronting the angel, however scary, empowers him to continue in his journey and face other fears head on.

Angels remind people that “there is a realm of mystery that cannot be explained by human intellect or will” (236). They express the notion that one’s only chance of returning to paradise is through loving, and that “paradise is our home and love our true destiny” (237).