Bell hooks’s All About Love: New Visions is a book that explores love in modern society. Hooks discusses love in interpersonal relationships and different aspects of what makes someone loving. Something I really enjoy about this book is the anecdotes hooks includes; I think using personal stories makes the content easier to digest. This book has been instrumental to my development as a person and the growth of my mindset. Hook’s words encouraged me to consider a more nuanced perspective on love, and it is the inspiration for my WP3 project. Hooks works from a framework introduced by M. Scott Peck in his book, The Road Less Travelled. Both encourage people to think of love as an action rather than a feeling, they describe love as “the will to nurture our own and another’s spiritual growth” (hooks 6). Love is something you do for yourself and the people you care about. Love cannot be abusive or passive.
While the entire book is phenomenal, I found Chapter 2, “Justice: Childhood Love Lessons”, and Chapter 8, “Community: Loving Communion”, to be the most impactful. Chapter 2 discusses how the love we receive from our parents and families is often tainted by violence and abuse, which completely negates any good intention behind the harmful actions. Too often parents use violence to deal with their children, but you cannot inflict violence on someone you love, especially not a child. While I’ve always been opposed to violent discipline this chapter really helped me put into words why. Chapter 8 is more about how we should seek and appreciate love from friends and community rather than seeking only romantic love. Love of a community is extremely important, as asserted in this chapter.
I don’t know how many ways I can express the massive impact this book has had on my life. Not only has it changed my outlook and approach to life, but it has also helped me to communicate better with my friends, family, and myself.
hooks, bell. All About Love: New Visions. HarperCollins, 2000.
