2004 Presentations (Communicative Events)

Concluding Remarks

Konner, Joan

How do you bring a rodeo to an end? It's my assignment today to get my arms around what we heard—and, yes, that's a pun on making love—and to help you get your arms around it, too, by doing what journalists do: connecting the dots, to try to make a coherent whole out of different presentations and perspectives on love and its obstacles. Part of what I heard, however, was how difficult it is to get your arms around even one person, a mother or child, a partner or mate, much less somebody Other in the world. Love is a subject that encompasses so many different worlds of knowledge, thought, and ideas. Every time I heard the word today it seemed a hyperlink to some experience, some memory, some feeling, something I knew or needed to know more about. If it was like that for you—and I expect that it was—then what we really should do is be quiet for a
few minutes to allow you to concentrate, and then let you speak from your own hearts and your own experiences of love.