An Analysis of A Kanemaru-san Quote
Dec. 28th, 2023 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
berrii"Love is letting go fears." -Kanemaru Jun'ichi
If “love” in this context is platonic love, then letting go of your fears lets you open up to others and connect with them. That reminds me of the concept of vulnerability, which is indeed quite scary at times. But if we allow ourselves to start relationships with people, then that can lead to deeper connections, therefore love.
If “love” in this context is romantic love, I can see where he is coming from. Unfortunately, this reminds me of how I ended up in a relationship with my ex, which is painful for me to think about, but since I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him since I fell in love with him, I might as well bring that up… I find love very frightening. I used to be more afraid of it than I am now. I desperately wanted to keep from falling in love because I was afraid that so many unwanted things would happen if I did. I think I probably had philophobia or something. Anyway, if it wasn’t for him coincidentally falling in love with me and confessing first (I had also planned to confess, albeit making it clear that I didn’t want to start a relationship, but he beat me to it), I wouldn’t have realized that, like most fears, love is nothing to be afraid of, and it benefits you (at least in some ways). I had to let go of all the irrational fears of this and that that I thought would happen, and just accept my feelings.
If “love” in this context is agape love, I believe it can also apply to humans in our relationship with God. We are often afraid to come to Him as the little sinful children we are. We’re afraid we’ve sinned too much. We’re afraid we haven’t done enough good deeds. We’re afraid we haven’t told enough people about Him. We’re afraid we haven’t read our Bibles enough. We’re afraid we’ve missed too many church services. But when we finally realize how helpless we are without Him and come before Him with shame on our faces, He embraces us with a love we could never feel from anything or anyone else.
I think it’s clear that Kanemaru-san knew what he was saying whether he fully realized the powerfulness of his words or not. Now that I’ve broken down this quote for myself, I love it even more.
Quote source: Jun’ichi Kanemaru
Although I know he said this quote, I don’t know where/when. I just found it on an old LiveJournal entry from 17 years ago…
If “love” in this context is platonic love, then letting go of your fears lets you open up to others and connect with them. That reminds me of the concept of vulnerability, which is indeed quite scary at times. But if we allow ourselves to start relationships with people, then that can lead to deeper connections, therefore love.
If “love” in this context is romantic love, I can see where he is coming from. Unfortunately, this reminds me of how I ended up in a relationship with my ex, which is painful for me to think about, but since I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him since I fell in love with him, I might as well bring that up… I find love very frightening. I used to be more afraid of it than I am now. I desperately wanted to keep from falling in love because I was afraid that so many unwanted things would happen if I did. I think I probably had philophobia or something. Anyway, if it wasn’t for him coincidentally falling in love with me and confessing first (I had also planned to confess, albeit making it clear that I didn’t want to start a relationship, but he beat me to it), I wouldn’t have realized that, like most fears, love is nothing to be afraid of, and it benefits you (at least in some ways). I had to let go of all the irrational fears of this and that that I thought would happen, and just accept my feelings.
If “love” in this context is agape love, I believe it can also apply to humans in our relationship with God. We are often afraid to come to Him as the little sinful children we are. We’re afraid we’ve sinned too much. We’re afraid we haven’t done enough good deeds. We’re afraid we haven’t told enough people about Him. We’re afraid we haven’t read our Bibles enough. We’re afraid we’ve missed too many church services. But when we finally realize how helpless we are without Him and come before Him with shame on our faces, He embraces us with a love we could never feel from anything or anyone else.
I think it’s clear that Kanemaru-san knew what he was saying whether he fully realized the powerfulness of his words or not. Now that I’ve broken down this quote for myself, I love it even more.
Quote source: Jun’ichi Kanemaru
Although I know he said this quote, I don’t know where/when. I just found it on an old LiveJournal entry from 17 years ago…
