Aspiring to the "Love Ethic"

Could I be this magnanimous if my daughter were killed by a Nazi? I don't know...

"Despite her pain, [Heather's mother] said she doesn’t want people to hate [the Nazi]. It isn’t what her daughter would have wanted, she said.

“Our daughter did not live a life of hate, and hating this young man is not going to solve anything. . . . It’s not that I think he should go unpunished for his crime. But hate only engenders more hate, and there’s no purpose in hate,” Bro said. “Heather’s life was about — passionately about — fairness and equality and caring, and that’s what we want people to take away from this.”

This heart-rending story reminds me that the 'love ethic,' espoused by moral greats throughout history, is not simply inspirational, but still largely aspirational, since we don't instinctively function in the way it prescribes.