Last week I attended a dinner conversation with Dr. Eddy Alvarez where we discussed the complicated subject of love. I really liked that the focus wasn’t entirely on romantic love like these discussions usually lead in. The discussion didn’t even just concern love for family members or friends, but we also talked about love for objects or love for places. The most interesting love that I thought we talked about was love for places such as home. Dr. Alvarez read some poems to us, including some of his own work, and one poem described an individual’s love for his home in Los Angeles. The poem talked about their favorite aspects of Los Angeles and how even though it was something that they loved and somewhere that they felt safe, it was also a place that they had to leave in order to grow.

One interesting side topic that I enjoyed discussing was when Dr. Alvarez spoke of the hypocrisy that some people can exhibit. For example he was explaining how social movement are incredibly important and can be inspired by the love for others. However some people can work towards social change and peace, while being mean to those around them and being hateful to some of their coworkers. I found this discussion incredibly interesting and very true. People can get caught up in the righteousness of their work, but not evaluate themselves or the love that they should be emanating towards their peers as well.