What's Love Got To Do With It

Love is word that has lost its power.  It's used so casually and so frequently that it's meaning has become minimized, and meaningless in our society.   Is it possible for any of us to even remember when the word love was special?  When it meant something to hear it?   I don't.   People say I love ice cream and I love you, with the same passion.  In fact saying I love you has also become trite.   Drive me to the mall?  Thanks, I love you man.  How many times in a relationship have you said "I  love you" because you want to hear it back?  We say it as a thank you, we say it as an apology, we say it to test the commitment or the direction of a new relationship.

Maybe it's because no one knows the true meaning of the word love.  We don't understand the power the word love should have.  What does it mean to love someone?  That you want to spend the rest of your life with that person? That you would put that person first in your life no matter what?  That you are willing to accept them warts and all?   Using that definition, what does it mean when you say I love ice cream?  Or I love that song?  Obviously it doesn't mean you want to spend the rest of your life with ice cream or that you would put ice cream first in your life above all else...although sometimes I think it would be much more satisfying.  But anyway...

Love makes the world go round.  Really?  I disagree.  I think fear makes the world go round.  I truly believe that fear is the driving force in human nature.  Think about it.  We fear death, so we take all sorts of heroic measures to protect ourselves.   We fear poverty, so we take jobs, and invest and save so that we never have to be poor.  We fear being alone, so we search out other people to spend our lives with.  The media is taking advantage of our fear and exploiting it.  They know our weak spot and they aren't afraid to manipulate us in to all kinds of products.  They don't appeal to our love side.  They appeal to the fear that we won't be adequate, that we won't be lovable, that we won't be successful unless we have all these things or spend all this money.

It is sad, but I think that there has been a seed planted in our psyche that love is what will  ultimately save us. More and more people are taking notice of the world around them and chosing love as a way to engender change.  And I hope this is the wave of the future.  I hope that as a species we will rise up out of our fear and do the things necessary to make a difference in the world.