I Hate Hate: A Piece About Love March 8, 2015 by Philippe Leonard Fradet Leave a Comment 0Share with your friendsYour NameYour EmailRecipient EmailEnter a MessageI read this article and found it very interesting, thought it might be something for you. The article is called I Hate Hate: A Piece About Love and is located at https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/i-hate-hate-a-piece-about-love/.CaptchaSubmit[The following is a poem/spoken word piece written for The Body Is Not An Apology.] I have struggled with the point of hatred Even though I hate a lot of things myself I hate sleeping in too late I hate not driving over potholes I hate when it rains I hate when it’s hot outside I hate when my dog pees in the house But all in all I hate hateful people It seems hypocritical, doesn’t it? Perpetuating that thing I wish to eradicate An overdevelopment of something so toxic Yet so basic So primal, so incredibly simple So admittedly hindering to moving on Yet it fuels that progress too It gives it a purpose, it gives it a reason What I mean is that I hate when you hate I hate when you hate the people I love I hate when my existence causes an issue And it’s something you will never resolve So I try to tread lightly Walking on proverbial egg shells Cutting my soles and breaking my soul So I look for something better overall It is amazing though, isn’t it? We consider the opposite of hate to be love As if they have never met each other As if they don’t share similar flaws They cause similar reactions in our bodies Hearts racing, hands sweating Eyes developing those dreaded old tears So maybe they aren’t so different after all Or maybe that’s not the best way of saying it Of course they’re different, love and hate But have you never seen in your life A time when hate actually caused love, though? Hear me out: I’m not making this up Think really hard about your life Think about your politics, your community And what motivates them to persist and grow What is one thing you hate? Of course, you hate the patriarchy! You hate the way gender dictates lives You hate the way it makes people suffer So you look at those around you You see how it affects them too You take their hands in yours And you change the world together! So, it’s not that simple I guess But let’s just take a step back Let’s see what really brings us together In tearing down the damn system We come from different places We have different identities, different lives But we love each other just the same And we use that love as an emblem I see my friends afraid every day Just walking down the street is a chore The store, the restaurant, nowhere is safe Just because they aren’t “normal” And hell I’m not “normal” either And who really is, anyway? But when your life is constantly threatened You need to find a way to live on Whether you’re a POC or you’re white Whether you’re cis trans or neither If you can find something to hate together You can create spaces of safety and love Reach across those imaginary lines in the sand That separate us from each other Because what we’re really separated from Is a better version of ourselves So maybe I don’t hate hateful people Or maybe it’s not really hate at all It’s anger, it’s rage, and it’s sadness It’s everything that make you want to change things Because there’s nothing I hate more than suffering There’s nothing I hate more than pain So maybe we should hate suffering more And love those we would have never even seen [Headline image: The photograph shows the earth in color being held by a pair of human hands in black and white]. 0