Book Group - All About Love: New Visions by Bell Hooks

Please join me as I once again turn the pages of a personal favorite and one of the most transformative books I have ever had the pleasure of reading: ‘All About Love: New Visions, by Bell Hooks.

I have always been a sucker for anything love. I see hearts in random objects and get giddy with excitement. I even have a freckle on my right hand in the shape of a heart. But it goes much, much deeper than that for me. I grew up in a very dysfunctional, very abusive family where we seldomly heard the adults in our lives tell us that they loved us, let alone show any kind of affection. For the longest time, I was what some would consider a serial monogamist, chasing romantic love, hoping to fill in that void that had been left all those years ago in my childhood.

Fast forward several years and some extreme lessons in tough love, I no longer practice monogamy, am an active member, community builder, and advocate for Polyamory/ENM/Relationship Choice, AND…I still get giddy when I see the shape of a heart in random objects. My proclivity toward love is no longer something that I am searching for to fill a void, but instead it is an action that I regularly take, a way of life if you will, and I believe that Love (as a verb) is one of the best ways for us to combat the divisions that we are plagued with in our current society.

Living life this way can be extremely difficult, especially when you live in a world that is so divided by things like hate, greed, consumerism, power, domination, and violence. It is for those exact reasons why it’s more important than ever to elevate voices such as Bell Hooks and share the words she offered the world in ‘All About Love: New Visions.’ This book has been a transformative piece of my healing process where despite always having been captivated by the concept of love, for the longest time, I struggled to actually embody it. And now that I strive more to embody it, I can see the benefits it provides for a greater healing that many of us have ever known.

Some of the quotes from the book that really stood out for me are:

“Love is a combination of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust.”
“But love is really more of an interactive process. It’s about what we do, not just what we feel. It’s a verb, not a noun.”
“The practice of love is the most powerful antidote to the politics of domination.”
“When we choose to love, we choose to move against fear, against alienation and separation,. The choice to love is a choice to connect, to find ourselves in the other.”
“For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?”
“True resistance begins with people confronting pain…and wanting to do something to change it.”

So please, grab a copy of the book and come prepared on December 11th, having read through the first two chapters. I will create a few discussion points that I feel are relevant to power of this book and I welcome any and all questions & discussion points you bring with you as well.

Once we are finished with this book, ideally, I would like to take suggestions for other books that we can move on to that support Polyamory/ENM or just love in general that we can use to help heal the wounds of our past so that we can create a better future.

I can’t wait to share this adventure with you!