{"id":37,"date":"2015-03-03T17:20:32","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T17:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/?p=37"},"modified":"2015-03-03T17:20:32","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T17:20:32","slug":"a-feast-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/2015\/03\/a-feast-of-love.html","title":{"rendered":"A Feast of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I saw a movie recently entitled \u201cFeast of Love.\u201d It was a very profound movie.\u00a0 At first glance one might say it was depressing. An older \u00a0couple who were college professors seemed to live a good life. They raised their only son well. He became a successful physician and made them proud. They were shocked when they received a call from the police that he was found dead in his home from a heroin overdose.\u00a0 The husband had an existential crisis and stopped teaching because he felt he must be giving students the wrong message if his son was so tortured unbeknownst to him.<\/p>\n<p>Another character was in search of love. He had two wives that he loved dearly, who left him because they did not share his ability to love deeply. For him, love was all that mattered. When he fell in love, he was all in no matter the consequences. \u00a0By the movie\u2019s end, he finally found someone who shared his passion and ability to become immersed in love.<\/p>\n<p>Yet another character had what appeared to be a tragic life. She fell in love with a beautiful young man who was a kind, but tormented soul. His mother left he and his father when he was very young. His father became very abusive and controlling and began to wish that everyone else around him was a miserable as he. \u00a0His son became a heroin addict just to escape. \u00a0The young woman and man married, got pregnant and were very happy. The man overcame his addiction but died anyway from a bad heart.<\/p>\n<p>On a superficial level this movie was awful. Every person in it suffered from some catastrophe. It seemed the message was \u201clife is tough and then you die.\u201d\u00a0 Yet, by the movie\u2019s end, another lesson is evinced. \u00a0\u00a0If you are looking at life from a results oriented perspective, it can be a cruel existence. If you are looking at life as a constant learning opportunity, as an opportunity to give and receive love, you will find that life is rich, and that each day yields a wonderful opportunity to commune with God through the driving force of this universe \u2013 LOVE.<\/p>\n<p>The older couple \u201cadopted\u201d the young lady after her husband died. The professor husband became reinvigorated. He had more people to love and to love him. The pitiful dreamer who lost two wives, found someone who also believed that love was the most important thing there is. They married and found happiness. He also \u00a0\u00a0re-established relationships with the two wives who left him and crushed his heart.\u00a0 He realized they were not bad people, they were just looking for the right kind of love for themselves.\u00a0 The message of the movie was that if we remain open to love, even after unspeakable things have happened to us, we will find the fulfillment that we seek. We will find that for which we yearn in the most unlikely places.<\/p>\n<p>The juxtaposition between the father whose wife left him and the other characters was illuminating. One man \u00a0saw the world as a place bereft of love. He just wanted to maim, hurt or eradicate \u00a0any modicum of happiness around him. The other characters, despite encountering severe hardships, were resilient and \u00a0stayed open to the possibility of love. \u00a0\u00a0They realized that everything that happens to us is merely a learning opportunity and gives us another chance to realize that love, deep, unabashed, unafraid, and \u00a0all in love is the path towards a fulfilling life. It seemed odd that this movie was called \u201cFeast of Love,\u201d when it was filled with gut wrenching tragedy. Yet, if one looked closer, it was a feast of love. Each character had a choice after each horrendous calamity. He could wallow in his misery or he could remain open to love. Those who made the choice to view life for what it is, \u201cA Feast of Love,\u201d were rewarded for their choice. Let us remember the lesson. When we are confronted with excruciating sadness, we should look upon those events as learning opportunities to remain open to love, for as we know, <strong><em>God is Love<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Our lives will be fulfilled in surprising ways once our focus is upon what really matters most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I saw a movie recently entitled \u201cFeast of Love.\u201d It was a very profound movie.\u00a0 At first glance one might say it was depressing. An older \u00a0couple who were college professors seemed to live a good life. They raised their only son well. He became a successful physician and made them proud. They were shocked&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":584,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Feast of Love - East Meets West<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Feast of Love - East Meets West\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I saw a movie recently entitled \u201cFeast of Love.\u201d It was a very profound movie.\u00a0 At first glance one might say it was depressing. An older \u00a0couple who were college professors seemed to live a good life. They raised their only son well. He became a successful physician and made them proud. They were shocked&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/2015\/03\/a-feast-of-love.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"East Meets West\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-03T17:20:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"douglasdavis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Seekerdwd\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Feast of Love - East Meets West","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Feast of Love - East Meets West","og_description":"I saw a movie recently entitled \u201cFeast of Love.\u201d It was a very profound movie.\u00a0 At first glance one might say it was depressing. An older \u00a0couple who were college professors seemed to live a good life. They raised their only son well. 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They were shocked&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/2015\/03\/a-feast-of-love.html","og_site_name":"East Meets West","article_published_time":"2015-03-03T17:20:32+00:00","author":"douglasdavis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Seekerdwd","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/2015\/03\/a-feast-of-love.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/2015\/03\/a-feast-of-love.html","name":"A Feast of Love - East Meets West","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-03-03T17:20:32+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-03T17:20:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/#\/schema\/person\/74b0561da40967894b7244d22cfafd54"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/2015\/03\/a-feast-of-love.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/2015\/03\/a-feast-of-love.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/2015\/03\/a-feast-of-love.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Feast of Love"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/","name":"East Meets West","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Douglas Davis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/#\/schema\/person\/74b0561da40967894b7244d22cfafd54","name":"douglasdavis","description":"Douglas Davis is a father, husband, writer, corporate consultant and business coach. He is the author of the book. \"In My Contemplation: the Musings of a Resonance Seeker.\" He received a B.A. from the University of Illinois in English and Mass Media Communications and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. Whether it is through the parameters of a business setting, spiritual setting or practical day to day living, his goal remains the same which is to help people bring out their best selves. He has recently published an e-book entitled, \"In My Contemplation\" which is available now on Amazon.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/Seekerdwd"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/author\/douglasdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/584"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/38"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/eastmeetswest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}