I can hear Tina Turner singing, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” after I watch the news, wondering why there is so much suffering in our world. The answer is, of course, “Everything.”
If we don’t show love for our fellow human beings and for all living beings for that matter, what do we have? We have our humanness and the parts of us that get us and the world into conflict: fighting, competition, greed, gluttony, I suppose all the major deadly sins.
We human beings have all sorts of feelings and thoughts which the iChing, sometimes refers to as “inferior.” I don’t like that term because how we feel and think are just true. Not good or bad, feelings and thoughts are like the weather, coming and going.
We hope to control our actions, at least some of the time. Thoughts and feelings are results of our experience of life, experiences in life.
We human beings walk around this dying planet, having all sorts of experiences, feelings, and thoughts. We try to manage our actions toward peers, authorities and leaders, families and friends,“others,” who are different from us by race, culture, language, politics, and/or religions. Why do some people kill each other in mass shootings with easy-to-obtain weaponry? Why do leaders, like the president, act in rude and disgusting ways? Why do we people neglect and abuse each other, especially those unlike us, those who think differently from us?
These past two years have offered fabulous examples of the “inferior” nature of some of our actions. We divide ourselves into tribes and can hardly stand to talk to those others. Collaboration, cooperation, and getting things done are second fiddle to winning. If we don’t agree on our values and beliefs, I am not sure how we find effective methods that might give most of us what most of us want. And, take good care of others.
Many of us grew up as little babies and children in a world that is full of trauma. How we react to trauma is influenced by our personalities, our biologies, and our circumstances, or environment. How our parents, schools, siblings and others have treated us, and we them. How fairness has played a part in our lives, or not. How love has been expressed so that when children want to believe their parents love them, how can they understand the torturous actions many parents display through tone of voice, by physical actions and/0r emotional, verbal abuse or neglect?
If we truly love each other, up close and from far away, let’s come together and share without battling. Let’s negotiate with each other and work toward healthy, productive plans.
Without love, we are nothing. We need to learn how to treat each other with respect, dignity and love even when we disagree. How? One person at a time. It all begins with me and with you.
