[Paul] Tillich
defines power as "the drive of everything living to realize itself, with
increasing intensity and extensity"…. He defines love as "the drive
towards the unity of the separated".
Power expresses our
purposefulness, wholeness, and agency.
Power looks
different to people who have to struggle for it.
The generative side
of power is the power-to that Paul Tillich refers to as the drive to
self-realization. The degenerative,
shadow side is power-over -- the stealing or suppression of the
self-realization of another.
If we push away or
abandon our sense of connection with others -- our acknowledgment, our
sensitivity, our love -- there is no limit to the sadness, terror, and pain
that our unchecked power can produce.
Power has two sides,
one generative and the other degenerative.
Our power is generative and amplifying when we realize ourselves while
loving and uniting with others. Our
power is degenerative and constraining -- reckless and abuse, or worse -- when
we overlook or deny or cut off our love and unity.
Power as the drive
towards self-realization is manifested in a focus on self-expression and
self-growth. Love as the drive to unite
the separated is manifested in a focus or relationship and connection.
Love is the only
emotion that expands intelligence.
Love without power
-- unity without space for self-realization -- is not merely sentimental and
anemic but is deceitfully reinforcing of the status quo. Love creates opening, potential, and
opportunity, but power is required for these to be listed and realized.
Love without power
is dangerous because power is never absent -- only sometimes concealed.
Love has two sides,
one generative and the other degenerative.
Our love is generative when it empowers us and others: when it helps us,
individually and collectively, to complete ourselves and grow. Our love is degenerative -- sentimental and
anemic, or worse -- when it overlooks or denies or suffocates power.
Power without love
is reckless and abusive, or worse, and love without power is sentimental and
anemic, or worse.
What holds us back
from exercising all of our power and all of our love? Fear.
Because we are afraid of offending or hurting others, we hold back our
purposefulness and our power. Because we
are afraid of being embarrassed or hurt, we hold back our openness and our
love. We dysfunctionally allow our fears
to prevent us from becoming whole.
