When we think of love, war appears to be exactly opposite. But Jungian psychologist and author Dr. James Hillman addresses the “terrible love of war.” Hillman discusses the feelings of community and brotherhood soldiers find on the battlefield, a feeling difficult to find in a society based on competition. Hillman says of war, “The ecstasy can be the highest moment ever experienced, as many battle veterans say. That would make it in common with other kinds of passionate love: sexual love; divine love; mystical love. You become crazy, in a way, just as you do in a passionate affair. You break the rules; you break the bounds; you’re outside of yourself; you find a whole new personality in yourself. Maybe that’s a shadow of love.”

He says, “What all loves have in common is the Other.” He gives evidence for his thesis by tracing themes in both history and mythology. “When a man sacrifices his life, dies for another man, it’s for the other; that’s the important part.”

Aimee and James Donnelly, known as Thumper and JD, are members of BACA, Bikers Against Child Abuse. As an organization, they help children who have been abused, providing support and demonstrating to victims that people care about what happens to them. Most of the members of BACA were abused as children and their unconditional involvement in this group as adults helps many to heal their own past wounds.

Thumper says about the work with individual children, “I can see a piece of my story. And sometimes that makes it rough, seein’ my story. But in that, it’s inevitable, I heal.”