Love Opens Doors to Human Hearts

By Park Nahm Shik

“Love is a many-splendored thing,” as is intoned in the title of a popular 1955 Hollywood film.

The theme song of the movie goes on to declare:

“It’s the April rose that only grows in the early spring

Love is nature’s way of giving a reason for living

The golden crown that makes a man a king”

I like this perspective of love as a miracle incubator. Love as such apparently sheds light on why NGOs in general are so well received wherever they find themselves. The Gwangju International Center, for one, is so popular in the Gwangju-Chonnam area for the simple reason that all its projects are founded on a deep-seated love for the region. The U.S. Peace Corps, for another, has enjoyed global popularity for a similar reason. Peace Corps Volunteers were genuinely welcomed wherever in the world they went to work, for what they always had at heart was helping to take to the next level the well-being of the population they went to serve. Doctors Without Borders, Action Against Hunger, and the International Community of the Red Cross are also among major movers and shakers in the sphere of global volunteerism. Their operations are all undergirded by a boundless compassion for people everywhere, regardless of skin color, ethnicity, religion, politics, etc.

Numerous individuals also have left indelible marks on the charity map of the world. Cases in point include Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Mother Teresa, and Father Lee Tae-seok, to name just a few. They have earned worldwide admiration for their selfless services in the most neglected corners of the globe. Love is indeed a thing of beauty – nothing less than an elixir that gives rise to bundles of goodies in its wake.  Love has a way of rooting and spreading, forever bonding those it touches. A place under its spell gets morphed into one of utmost bliss, literally a Garden of Eden for all. Which is basically why “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is such an impactful teaching for us all.

Speaking of our neighbors, nature is the nearest of them all, bar none, and by far the most priceless to boot. It is an overarching dome of a home we are all destined to dwell in for as long as we live. Indebted to her as we always are, we have gotten to be such ingrates as to think nothing of taking her for granted – abusing and exploiting her even to the detriment of our precious biome itself. The wanton destruction of the Amazon Rainforest comes to mind here. We allegedly get a little economic gain in return which is extremely miniscule and ephemeral at that. Is that not too steep a price to pay for the precipitous degradation of the global environment? I do not particularly enjoy being a doomsayer, but what looms on the horizon is nothing less than an apocalypse, a modern-day Noah’s Ark, as it were, dooming every living being to disappear from the surface of the planet. If only we could turn back the clock and do things over in a more environment-friendly manner. Regrettably, though, we may already be way past the point of no return.

The Author

Nahm-Sheik Park has a BA in English from Chonnam National University, an MA in linguistics from the University of Hawaii, and a PhD in applied linguistics from Georgetown University. He is now a professor emeritus after a long and illustrious career at Seoul National University.