Reframing civilization as an imperfect beloved worthy of passionate devotion, love, and grief precisely because it is fallible and finite.
Mirabai loved Krishna with aching intensity, not because he was perfect, but because he was the focus of her devotion—complex, distant, demanding, and intimate all at once. We can approach civilization with similar paradoxical devotion: loving it not for its perfection but for its existence, its creativity, its capacity for beauty and meaning-making. This beloved civilization is flawed, destructive at times, finite, and in transition. Yet it is ours. Loving a civilization we grieve for is not naive sentimentality; it is mature devotion. It means celebrating art, science, connection, and wisdom while simultaneously grieving the suffering and destruction embedded in civilization. Mirabai teaches that the deepest love includes pain, longing, and loss. This is the love available for civilization now.
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