The difficulty of love

"Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real."

- Iris Murdoch.

According to Jesus, we are to love our neighbour as ourselves. I take it that he means we are to love our neighbours in the same way that we love ourselves, rather than directing us to love the neighbour as an extension of ourselves. Love requires open eyes to the needs and opportunities of the neighbour. I cannot assume my neighbour is just like me but have to go through the sometimes painful process of recognising and understanding our differences.