Happy Valentine’s Day!
Today has me thinking of love, and of course I am pondering the age old eternal question:
I guess I am not the only one who ponders this question, since love has been a topic in literature and art for all time remembered. With all the representations and creations focused on love, you would think the world would have a great understanding of what is love. But I don’t think we are much further ahead of Haddaway!
Love comes in many forms. There is the love we feel for our family, our friends, our pets, children and of course partners. For me, there is also much love and passion I feel for making my art.
I could wax poetically about those I love and I often do. But this is not what this post is about. I am really fortunate to be surrounded by love in my life, which is both intentional and makes me lucky!
At the same time, I have been feeling a lack of love in my life. In today’s world, even though we are more connected than ever by our laptops and devices, it seems like people spend more time alone than ever.
I am also wondering if you grew up thinking that we all had a personal responsibility to help create a world with more love, with more concern and care for others. It is unimaginable to me, the thought we would live in a world where we thought it was better to spend billions of dollars on a wall to keep people out, without considering how much that money could help people.
I think that may be because we are responding from a place of fear and not love. And that is part of the human condition. As people, we have all been hurt and fear is a natural response – when there is real evidence that we might be in danger. But why are we afraid of people who are so poor or persecuted due to a coincidence of where they are born.
If you had $750 million dollars to spend each year, what would you do? Spend it on maintenance for a wall to keep out the people who need your help? I think we can do better! Maybe it is time we thought about these people who are fleeing conditions of extreme violence, a lack of food, political persecution, organized gangs, rape and potential death. Or do we let a billionaire continue to demonize them?
Imagine how much better we could make the world with the cost of the wall being between 8 – 70 billion dollars? I am not saying the United States needs no border security, but why spend more money on this issue when illegal immigration is on the decline?
This Valentine’s Day my heart is with those who are hungry, poor, struggling, emotionally distraught and without a home. Let’s choose love. Let’s find smart ways to balance our fear with love.
Wishing you all a special day filled with smiles and random acts of kindness.
