Love

When I speak of “unconditional love”, I do not mean what I generally call “country song love”, which frequently includes things like enmeshment and co-dependence.  I do mean being willing to extend oneself for someone else’s spiritual or emotional growth, with compassion and caring, regardless of what they have said or done.  In older individuals this often involves not preventing them from experiencing natural consequences.  The love I speak of could, for example, include allowing them to experience the anxiety of placing a large amount of value on something transient like a job or the vigor of being young.  The unconditional love I speak of could also involve calling the police and allowing a person to experience going to jail.