What is love, and how do you know if you are in it?
While visiting Denali National Park this summer, I met an Athabascan instructor who talked to our tour group about the concept of love in her culture. She told a story about her aunt. One day her parents brought her to the river. A man was there, sitting in a canoe with his parents. She was told she was to get into the canoe and go with them because the man was to be her husband. She was not attracted to the man, but she got into the canoe. At first, she and the man did nothing except observe each other, but after a year, she came to love him.
Our instructor said that in her language there is no word for “love.” The word they use describes the feeling you get when someone you care deeply about is hurt. I have been considering who I truly love by that definition.
After telling us the story, the instructor taught us a dance. The men circled in one direction while pantomiming acts of hunting and providing. The women circled in the opposite direction while portraying acts of caring and service. As we danced, a member of our group was recruited to beat a steady rhythm on a drum. We were told that the purpose of the drum was to get everyone’s hearts to beat together.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)