In the bible, religious people usually find the unconditional love as a god's love for humanity, called "agape." According to Wikipedia, it is described that [agape] represents divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful love ("Agape" par. 1). God loves human-beings without any condition. For example, in Christianity, there are the Ten Commandments. Most of the Ten Commandments represent the love for god and neighbors. In addition, Jesus always taught people to love each other and take the initiative in loving people unconditionally. In the end, Jesus died for humanity suffering from persecution. While he was suffering from persecution till his death, he did not take any advantage of his sacrifice. Besides, he did not expect people to love himself again. He showed what unconditional love was.

Now we can find another kind of unconditional loves as holy as God's love. It is the maternal affection. I am absolutely sure that most mothers can love their children without any conditions. Even though it has been reported that some mothers abuse their children, it is still natural that mothers love their children unconditionally. Most mothers always try to help their children, support them, and do anything they want. However, they have never expected any returns for their efforts and love from their children. Sometimes mothers can even show unimaginable powers for the sake of their children. I would like to tell you a touching story. A mother and her son visited the zoo. The son wanted to see many animals and watch them closely. He was full of curiosity. Accidently, he entered the elephants' cage through cut wires. Because the cage was for elephants, the iron-bar was so high that people could not leap over it. As soon as the mother saw her son in the cage and found out that he was in a great danger, she jumped over the barrier and rescued her son. It happened in a flash. She followed her instinct on rescuing him. She did not think what she was going to do and did not consider whether or not it was dangerous. If this was not an unconditional love, she could not leap over the cage bar nor be brave in the cage. Her resolution to rescue her son from danger made her superhuman. This comes from mother's unconditional love, which is the greatest love.

Also, I can feel mother's great love for me and my brother. In fact, when I was a child, I did not know what maternal affection is. I even believed that I deserved to be loved by my mother and a mother's love for her child is a matter of course. Because my mother gave birth to me and has done everything for me, it is proper to be loved. Therefore, I did not deeply realize that what she had done for me was the unconditional love. When I was seven or eight years old, I was supposed to go on a picnic at school. As always, my mother cooked my lunch for the picnic. In Korea, whenever Koreans make a school excursion, we have a special lunch called 'Kimbab'. Kimbab looks like a California roll. It is one of the symbolic foods for a picnic in Korea. I remember it clearly. I woke up with the delicious smell of food and prepared to go on a picnic with the Kimbab which my mother had already made. My mother's Kimbab is much more delicious than any others and she knew that. However, when she cooked the Kimbab, she deeply cut her little finger. In an instant, the kitchen counter was covered with her blood. I could not imagine how painful it was. My mother screamed for the first few seconds and then kept preparing my lunchbox. Finally, I ended up eating the most delicious lunch and spent a great time with my friends as if nothing had happened before. I did not realize the Kimbab was not just food. It was mother's love. Her patience was strong enough to show maternal love.

I did not realize the unconditional love until two years ago. I started to study English in New York two years ago. At that time, I had planned to study for only one year. My mother felt pity for me because I lived in a foreign country alone. I had no relatives and no friends in New York at all. She could not cook for me and take care of me anymore. For these reasons, she has always worried about me. Since I left my home (that is, my mother), I have been always a concern to her. She wanted to see how I lived alone so she came to New York when I began to make friends. I was happy to see her and stay with her for a while. However, it was regretfully convinced that hanging out with my new friends was more important than spending time with my mother. Of course, I felt a little bit sorry for her and asked her "Is it OK to go out and leave you alone?" Whenever I asked her, she always answered exactly the same; "Don't worry about me. Go out and hang out with your friends at any time you want. Enjoy your own life."

While I wondered whether I did a right thing or not, I left her alone at home. While I was spending time with my friends, my mother cleaned up my house, cooked and waited for me. Her trip for sightseeing in New York had entirely been changed to keeping the house clean. Thanks to her consideration, I could get closer to my friends, but she had a difficult time at my home alone. She usually acted like this, the reason of which is based on her determination of importance of the things. Her daughter's life is always more important than her own life, so she did anything for her children at any cost. She sacrificed herself to her children and then still does so.

Not only human beings have the maternal affection, so do animals have it. Even though animal's maternal love looks more instinctive, it is exactly the same as human-beings'. I have experienced such a close relationship from my puppy, Carat. Because she is a grandmother now, she is old and weak. However, she was strong enough to protect herself and her children five years ago. It was the first time that I watched a dog delivering a baby with unaided eyes. She seemed to suffer extremely from giving birth, but it was so exciting to me. To my surprise, I could not find any blood from the dog delivering a baby. It was as much clean as nothing happened. Carat herself cleaned it up w hile she was delivering. She cut the umbilical cords and got rid of membranes of newborn puppies for herself. Especially, it is important to get rid of membranes of newborn puppies for their breathing. She endured torturous pain of delivering but kept her room clean at the same time. After her delivering, I wanted to see and touch newborn puppies. However, she did not allow me near to her babies. The closer I got to her room, the louder she growled showing her teeth. She looked much more scared than usual, and I could not approach to Carat and her children for about one week. I just gazed at them far away. Also, she did not eat any food, kept her children close to herself and protected them. A few days later, she seemed to feel safe and let the babies stay by themselves. She came out her room, ate something and allowed me touch her babies. It was incredible. Nobody taught her how to be a mother and how to deal with the delivery, but she just knew what to do and became a mother. As soon as she gave birth, she loved her children without any conditions.

Even animals love their children with no conditions. I have been wondering whether I can love my children without any conditions but I end up concluding that I cannot do anything as my mother has done for me. In my mind, myself is much more important for me than any others even though the others are my children. I cannot carry heavy trunks of my children as well as mine because mine are already too heavy. I would rather teach them how to overcome the suffering than to carry the bags for themselves. I cannot support everything my children want even though I can. I would teach them that they cannot have everything they want and everyone does not have whatever they want. In the same way, I would not replace my shoes to my children's even when they hurt their feet after long time walking. I would suggest them not to wear out the shoes in the next time. As you read, I cannot have the same maternal affection to my children as my mother. I do not have a spirit of self-sacrifice. In my life, the most important person is myself. Also, giving birth is painful enough to give them my love. Even though I will probably be changed a little bit after I become a mother, I do not think I will consider my children more than myself.

A puppy Hobak, who is a daughter of Carat, has the same character as me. She behaves only for herself, especially for food. She has no consideration of her mother who gave a birth to her. However, even such a selfish-looking creature has her maternal affection. She also loved her children without conditions just after delivered two babies. Hobak started to protect her newborn babies. That is, at least at that short time, it was more important for her to protect her children than her food. Besides, she kept a bright lookout from her mother, Carat. Whenever Carat reached Hobak's room, Hobak started to bark to her. It is ridiculous that Hobak bewared her mother as a daughter, but she played a role, protecting her children as a mother. It was her own way to show her maternal love. This time period she showed her love to her children was very short, but it was absolutely the love of Hobak to her children.

I heard that people cannot be a real mother and understand the warm feeling of their mothers until they give birth and bring up a baby. Also, from their children, they can learn what the maternal affection is and realize how their mother has loved to them. Because I had experiences about this love from my mother and two puppies, I theoritically know what the maternal love is. It is a sublime, self-sacrifice, profound, blind, noble, and unconditional love. Frankly speaking, I cannot know and feel what exactly it is until I become a mother. However, it is the absolute truth that the maternal affection depends on unconditional love and it is the greatest above all. The truth will not be changed at all.