There is no Love in a Duty of Care.
Duty is a tax that is paid. It is a physical obligation and a mental toleration. Nobody loves paying taxes, doing their duty or carrying out an imposed obligation. There is no emotional love in a physical duty carried out by order of an external authority .
By decree of an external Local Authority, I have a duty of care to process and recycle my rubbish. I pay my Local Authority taxes for the privilege of carrying out this duty of care.
A duty of care is a standard practice, which takes care of someone else’s physical needs, carefully but without love. The love involved in a duty of care is an emotional need. An emotional need by definition is the absence of Love. I do my duty in order to meet my own emotional needs. I take care of other people’s physical needs in order to meet my own emotional need to be needed.
Caring about another person requires the sensitivity and emotional intelligence to intuitively know what they need emotionally. Caring for another emotionally requires both compassion and empathy, not apathy, sympathy or pity.
It is an honour to care for someone in a loving and compassionate way, not a duty. There is no emotional tax to pay from my compassion or empathy, when truly caring for the wellbeing of another.
Caring for one’s Self is an act of love, never a duty to perform. Loving oneself requires care, not duty. We do unto others as we choose others to do unto us in a caring, loving & compassionate way, not out of duty.
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