Abstract
This manuscript offers a new view of old and timeless values: the essential ethic of love, informed by contemporary European philosophies, and caring theory, as well as ancient poetry and wisdom traditions. It integrates some of the philosophical views of Levinas and Logstrup with Watson's Transpersonal Caring Theory. The metaphysics, metaphors, and meanings associated with "ethics of face," the "infinity of the human soul," and "holding another's life in our hands" are tied to a deeply ethical foundation for the timeless practice of love and caring, as a means to sustain, not only our shared humanity, but the profession of nursing itself.
Let us fall in love again
And scatter gold dust all over the world.
Let us become a new Spring
And feel the breezes drift in the heaven's scent.
Let us dress the earth in green,
And like the sap of a young tree
Let the grace from within sustain us.
Let us carve gems out of our stony hearts
And let them light our path of Love.
The glance of love is crystal clear
And we are blessed by its light.
-Rumi 1(p117)