Everything is for Loving
Editor’s Note: Inspired by serving with Little Friends for Peace, DC Service Corps volunteer Sam Alves reflects on how our hands, words, and more should be used for love instead of destruction.
A kindergarten student designs traces their hand and adds peace designs. Indeed, our hands are for loving.
In Peace Class, we sometimes sing a song called “Our Hands are for Loving.” It goes like this:
Our hands are for loving, our hands are for hugging
Our hands are not for pushing and shoving.
Our hands are for loving, our hands are for hugging
Our hands are not for pushing and shoving.
Wave your hand, say hello and goodbye
Don’t use your hands to make someone cry.
You’ve got a left and you’ve got a right,
Don’t use your hands to get in a fight.
Our hands are for loving, our hands are for hugging
Our hands are not for pushing and shoving.
Our hands are for loving, our hands are for hugging
Our hands are not for pushing and shoving.
I thought of this when I saw the blurb from Pope Leo’s recent encyclical stating that AI needs to be disarmed. I agree, and throughout this year with Little Friends for Peace, I have come to see that all God has offered in this world — hands, AI, water, fire, our words — is for loving.
In recent weeks in different schools, we also read a book called “Our Words are not for Hurting.” In it, the author writes that we all have a choice to make when we think of something to say. We are just as able to use our words to bring someone peace as we are to break someone’s peace. That choice is not just for words but for everything. We discussed all sorts of choices we could make. For example, we can use fire to heat us up when we are cold or to make food; we can also use fire to hurt people or in weapons or to destroy nature or property.
Peace Class offers all sorts of lower-stakes examples for how our choices affect others. Are we using our words and hands to help or hurt people? The concepts remain the same for higher stakes examples, though. Are we using our intellect, machinery, taxes, and institutions to help people or hurt people? Artificial “intelligence” could have great use in health care — and it would be great if that care was offered free at the point of service in this country — or it could be used more dangerously, to surveil and create lude images or who knows what.
In the end, everything should be for loving.
Question for Reflection: How can you use your hands, your words, or AI for loving purposes?
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