Julia Butterfly Hill made the same point in describing her unlikely partnership with social activist Van Jones: "I brought the piece that we are not separate from the planet. His piece was that we need to uplift everyone. We were committed to seeing how those pieces fit together. We could see underneath all of it was the idea of disposability: the idea that you've got disposable people, a disposable planet."[25] If we push away or abandon our sense of connection with others-our acknowledgment, our sensitivity, our love-there is no limit to the sadness, terror, and pain that our unchecked power can produce.
We can recognize this degenerative phenomenon of power without love because, in so many contexts and at so many scales, power dominates love. We see this in our homes, organizations, communities, nations, and in international affairs. Patrick Dodson told me a story about Michael Long, a popular Australian aboriginal sportsman who had walked from Melbourne to Canberra to draw attention to the desperate situation of his people. Long met with Prime Minister John Howard and asked him the anguished question: "Where is the love for my people?" We all feel the anguish that results from the deficit of love.
LOVE IS WHAT MAKES POWER GENERATIVE
Based on these experiences, then, here is how I understand the nature of power and its relationship to love. Power has two sides, one generative and the other degenerative. Our power is generative and amplifying when we realize ourselves while loving and uniting with others. Our power is degenerative and constrain-ing-reckless and abusive, or worse-when we overlook or deny or cut off our love and unity.