Why I Wrote A Boring Blog About Love That You Probably Don’t Have Time To Read Today…
There are so many pieces of art out there that try and get the message of love across, but its as if it’s always a cryptic truth wrapped in entertainment, filled with typical tropes, jokes or poetic lyrics… the truth is hidden like sweet sugar coated vitamins within easter eggs in our culture. We conceal love. It tickles me to imagine, mid evil poets underneath trees eating grapes dressed in flamboyant clothes trying to define love like it’s some sort of magical and ethereal force… why don’t we just give love a damn definition so we can all agree on what it means? Love is a compass of positive human behavior.
Was that so hard?
Why do we hide meaning in myth, parables, subtext, and story? Is it because people find the truth tough to swallow? Is that why we mix it into a sweet banana cake of creativity? Why not give it straight? Is it better to conceal it? Is the idea of love and a pure moral path of behavior too boring and dry for us? Does this path of perfection in our behavior make us feel too much like a dogpile of human failure? Can’t we all just accept that we have a ways to go and a heap to learn? A blog is a rather lackluster way to transfer the meme from me to you, but it’s what I have access to. I choose to spread the love, by whatever means available. Maybe I’ll get around to mixing it all into a sweet banana cake someday, but here is what I have to give. Plain boring blog words. I’m going to go stand by my fridge and eat some grapes now.
Don’t be afraid to love.
Gandhi assassinated. MLK murdered. Lennon — shot by a madman. Jesus tortured and crucified… And that’s how the story of some superstars of love ended. They were all loud vocal advocates of love and a righteous path of behavior. Certainly, these few people aren’t the only ones who dedicated and stood for love as a principle of human behavior, there have been billions of good loving humans… but gosh, when you look at it that way, a life led by promoting love and nonviolence looks rather certain to have a shit-rotten ending. Makes you question, “Is love a terrifying endeavor?!”
Imagine that. Writing the song, Imagine. Having a head full of peace, love and good humor and then being shot in the street.
2,000 some years ago, the JC man tried to tell people about love, and then he’s betrayed, hanging on a wooden cross with big rusty spikes speared through his hands and feet. Bleeding to death in a loincloth.
Gandhi was pure peace, smart as a whip. But his ways and noncooperative defiance for change and justice agitated many. In that same vein, MLK fought the wrongs and unfairness of racial inequality. Sure after their death, culture has enshrined these people as heroes, examples of love, and in some beliefs the form of God.
Love, something that they stood for, triggered others to end their existence. Of course, that didn’t work, their life wasn’t the end of their message. Their stories, music, teachings, speeches, and actions — live on and permeate the culture we inhabit.
Persuading others to be better than they are, to push their limits of empathy is hard work. It’s not what people want to hear. In this way, being radically kind and nonviolent is a risk. I want to put love in the world, but I don’t want to get murdered for it. I wanna live out my life, retire, belong to a country club, and maybe go out on the golf course as a geezer with a golf ball to the dome. The joke at my eulogy… “He lived a good life… He lived to ninety-foooooooooouuuuuurrrrr!”
When it comes to love, what’s the reward? Tragic and brutal death? What the hell is the point of that? Sure doesn’t sound like the promise of heaven… the biological force within all of us wants to avoid death and pain, it wants to survive and find pleasure. But these examples make love feel painfully scary.
So the alternate path to a rational brain seems reasonable. “Maybe I won’t be too good… I’ll fight, perhaps I’ll be a dickhead from time to time, walled-off, shelled up, unapproachable. Maybe I’ll just get swept up in a hot romance and love just that one person because that’s all we need! That oughta be enough - a little bubble of passion and ignorance is plenty-o-romantic love for me!” Or “Maybe I’ll just love my money.”
It may be so that a little bit of malice in our heart, a few spices of bitterness protect us from the cruelties of the world.
We fiercely defend our people, our race, and our families, but this tribal mentality creates a love bubble. An US vs THEM perspective with possibilities of short-term power… but it’s not the true way forward. It’s not in the interest of our best evolutionary selves.
The idea isn’t perfectly logical, and for some it’s less intuitive, but love is necessary for our collective long-term survival. We must love and move in the direction away from fear. (I’m is quoting Yoda here… but “fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate and the hate leads to evil.”)
Of course, this doesn’t mean we need to go around showing affection and attention to everyone. Love doesn’t mean running around like a delusional hippie that gets abused and battered by the cunning nature of other human beings. Love doesn’t mean, go be a dummy.
Love in this time period of our evolution must be practiced with caution and intelligence. It’s an unfortunate truth, but regardless, love is still our way forward. There is dark, but you need to be light. After all, we are made of star stuff and what good would the sun be if it didn’t shine?
Love takes bravery. But I argue It’s worth it.
And maybe to love humbly without the attention of fame is the way. if you need a good example of love, check out the dogs (the good ones anyway). Some of the shittiest people on the planet are loved by their dogs. Dogs are great examples of love.