This post started satirically, but since Twitter pretty much demolished Trump, I decided otherwise.
In a meandering hour-long speech in West Virginia, Donald Trump said he “fell in love” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
“We fell in love.” Trump added “No really. He wrote me beautiful letters. They were great letters. And then we fell in love.”
Sincere apologies to Melania. Or is it congratulations? I’m unsure.
Unfortunately, Trump and Kim Jong-un are not experiencing real love. “Love” can take on many forms. I can love pizza, or I can love my dog. I do love Jazz music and love an early morning rain. As such, love, has many different meanings and can be dependent upon the situation or context.
What Trump misses is that only through the sacrifice of personal time and putting oneself aside do we show true love. In turn, this allows others a glimpse of the God residing within us. Thus, God’s love for me goes beyond my love of pizza, sports or even friends and family. The God I love exhibits a giving love. His is a sacrificing and selfless love, a love that shows itself in action. God loves us, not because we are attractive or share some interest with Him, but simply because He loves us.
Both Trump and Kim Jong-un force constituents to adjust their definition of love to reflect the Trump/Kim reality of love. Thus, Trump’s and Kim Jong-un’s version of love is directly opposed to that of God. Their version of love is neither patient, nor kind. Their view of love is jealous, boastful, proud and rude. It’s irritable, keeps a record of wrongs and rarely believes in truth. Their version of love can and will kill.
For those in dismay with our leader’s newfound love, I close with this story.
“Suzuki Roshi, I’ve been listening to your lectures for years,” a student said during the question and answer time following a lecture, “but I just don’t understand. Could you just please put it in a nutshell? Can you reduce Buddhism to one phrase?”
Everyone laughed. Suzuki laughed.
“Everything changes,” he said.
Moral of the story? One of the foremost teachings in Buddhism is that everything in life is impermanent – even Trump, even Kim.