On a bright morning in the spring of 1975 a friend of mine was driving his convertible to work near Toledo at a speed fast enough to draw police attention. In court, two weeks later, the judge asked my friend why he’d been speeding. "Frankly, your honor," my pal announced, " I was carried away by the exuberance of the morning.
Of course, the judge found "exuberance" a weak defense. After all, the rules of civilization are designed to place boundaries around passionate expressions of feeling, positive or negative. We can’t be letting people speed just because they’re feeling exuberant, can we?…
Society bars adults from running naked down the middle of the
street no matter how ecstatic that adult may be feeling at the moment. Loud shouts of
joy can surely gain you ejection from some of America’s finest
restaurants. As a long time adult (and lawyer) I know the rules as well as anyone.
As society imposes its boundaries, we need to be sure that Love itself is not thwarted. In the hospital documentary, Sacred Work, an oncology nurse tells the camera that her patient asked her to get in bed with him as a joke. A photo then appears on the screen of the nurse in uniform in bed with her terminally ill patient. This loving act was enough to cause the film to be barred from showing at one Catholic hospital out west. Another scene in the same film of a man groaning in pain caused the same film to be condemned by the religious leader of another faith-based system
Too much truth can make some people very uncomfortable.
Fortunately, this same film is inspiring thousands of caregivers who see it in hundreds of other hospitals, nursing homes, hospices and charities where it has been welcomed as an honest and inspiring portrayal of Love in the workplace.
Love has no interest in or need for human boundaries. She follows her own path. Love will naturally avoid senseless violence and find righteous expression where justice has failed. She may often call caregivers to break a rule here and there. The courageous caregiver will simply accept the consequences.
Do we really want to throw a visitor out of the room of a dying patient merely because visiting hours are over? Do we want to bar a nurse from rushing a wheel chair to a distressed patient because "wheelchairs are not allowed outside the doors of the ER?" Do we really need to forbid pain medication to a terminally ill ninety-one-year-old because of the risk of drug addiction?
The only human guidelines that matter are the ones informed by Love. Love’s laws are ones we may live with all the exuberance life has to offer.
-Erie Chapman
Journal of Sacred Work 
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