Later I read in Mark 2.22 Jesus' parable about not putting old wine in new wineskins because the skins will burst, in which case both wine and skins will be lost. He says to put new wine in fresh wineskins. Should the old wine of human failings be poured into the new wineskin of love? Can one pour the new wine of love into the old wineskin that may actually show the world impatience, unkindness, pride? Surely that new wine would burst that old skin. The inner and the outer must be the same, right?
Later I read from a more secular source, The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Russo and Hudson. In talking about Type Two, "the helper" they write, "We cannot will ourselves to love ourselves or to love others. All we can do, paradoxically, is to recognize the presence of love in ourselves and others (their emphasis)." They say that our essence is an outpouring of love, often blocked by the habits and false beliefs of our personalities. They add that what we can do is to become aware of all that blocks the outpouring of love from our more ancient and true selves.
Here we are, caught in the sort of paradox we find as we approach truth - We must make the wineskin new, clothing ourselves in love so that the old wine of love can pour forth. However, in this case neither the wineskin nor the wine are lost. When we make the wineskin new, Russo and Hudson might say, "we recognize that we not only have love and value, but at the level of our souls, we are love and value." Since is also true of others, love is indeed what binds everything together in perfect harmony. The paradox dissolves.