"Empire"

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"Totum meum pro vobis" is Latin for "All of me for all of you." In more realistic words, it might mean "All I could be for all that you are." Individuality is among the many complexities of this life. The definition of a person differs. A biologist might say we are oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen, whereas a psychologist might say we are our environmentally induced behavior. An evangelical might say we are God's creation in perfect image. But an SBNR person might say true personhood is the friends you make along the way. I believe at the center of personhood is the potential to be more. 


To light the altar of your every aspiration ablaze and call it "love" is vain. This is but the romanticized pain we inflict upon ourselves just to prove our feelings are real. But the truth is that an empire built on oblation, an offering to the gods of our sentimentalism, is an empire that burns all the same. Yes, love requires action, but action does not require enervation. A relationship is not at all the absence of autonomy, but a place where autonomy is celebrated and nurtured. 


So then, if I put myself first, do I inadvertently put you last? Is it selfish to think that I can love you and love myself? When it becomes an ultimatum between my autonomy and my relationship, I have to choose my autonomy. I mean, if this empire falls, why do I need to fall with it?

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