the consequences with years of misery? How many
wise men AND women, have acted like fools in the name of love?
38 Yes, love is the sweetest emotion, love is the most tender joy, but
when love is misused, when it goes awry, it is the most dangerous of
all things, because it does not destroy quickly, but does its damage
quietly, almost unknowingly."
39 "Then if love is the most dangerous emotion," questioned the man,
"what is hate?"
40 "Hate," answered Leaping Deer, "is the most evil of emotions. Love
may cloud reason, but hate destroys it. Love may create misjudgment,
hate leaves no judgment at all.
41 If a person makes mistakes because of love, then sometimes the
damage can be undone, but that which is done in the name of hate, can
never be undone.
42 The evil that hate causes eats up at man's Eternal Spirit, and
leaves nothing but an empty shell. Look at The Oneness. They are taught
to hate all that is different, to despise anything new, to think like
every other person, and look how cruel, and sad, and bitter they are.
They are empty men, with nothing inside except the cruelty they have
been taught to believe in."
43 "Sometimes," agreed one of the young men, "I believe we should teach
our children to feel nothing at all, that to be without emotions is the
best of all. To do everything by reason, and to throw emotion away."
44 Leaping Deer picked up a stone. "This stone," he continued, "has no
emotion. It feels no emotion. It feels no love, no hate, no greed or
generosity. It does not know good from bad, light from dark. Do you
want to be like this stone? Do you want your children to be a stone? If
so, take this stone and call it your son. For surely it would be as
good a son as any who did not have emotion."
45 The young man took the stone and held it for a