Somewhere in all of our early education, we learned the word “plus.” It was a part of our earliest math lessons: one plus one equals two. At a more sophisticated age (maybe middle school) we might have been found saying things like: “plus, you don’t want to just be stupid!” as we came to understand that “plus” was synonymous with “and.” As adults, we likely have been invited to a gathering where the formal invitation was sent to us and our “plus one” meaning, the additional person of our choosing that we wanted to bring with us.
“Plus” is a Latin word that means “more.” Our word “plural” is built on the plural form of the Latin word “plus.” It just means “more things, more considerations, more items, having to do with more.
At this basic consideration of the meaning of this word, the connection to love ought to be obvious. Loving is an action of extension, of inclusion, of expansion, of adding more acceptance, more kindness, more affection, more welcome, more safety, more protection, more trust to any situation or set of relationships. We might even say without error that the idea of pluralism and love are almost synonymous. If that’s the case, then why should we establish it as one of our most significant principles?
Pluralism, as a social idea, stands in contrast to another social idea–uniformity. Uniformity inserts into a set of relationships the expectation that there is one shape, one way, one system, one look, one beauty, one kind (of anything but almost always people) that is acceptable.
Pluralism, informed by love, makes this proclamation: there is not just one way, one beauty, one kind. There are more, many more, and it is the nature of love to expand. We are proclaiming as Unitarian Universalists that love is expansive, that the circle must always be made wider, wider still, and that the next person, whoever that is, is included.
~Bob Patrick
Ah Love, so much easier to capture and share when the boundaries assure uniformity. Very little risk in loving our own reflections. It gets tricky when we expect ourselves to love unconditionally, as in loving our children, our family and in-laws, our neighbors…. even the strangers that step foot into our life. love has so many different qualities/attributes that it’s hard to stretch one love over the entire terrain of our personal landscape. We are so blessed to know that Love has many faces and we have the skills to respond to pluralism in a variety of ways , conditionally or not. It’s important to maintain your personal wellspring of Love so it is sustained .