the word that changed the world
What is the number one motivator to take action? Love. It’s one of those known but not often articulated facts. It is an absolute and very few things fall in that category. Unconditional love is the foundation to all that is good in this world. Why that is, I believe is because love is so personal, so private, so ingrained in our soul that there is nothing we wouldn't do for love. It is the one thing that we all want, we are all in search of, and we all possess that constant yearning to find it and when we do, there is simply nothing we wouldn't do to protect it.
People aren't willing to sacrifice everything for a like… but they are for a love – a true love. I am not talking about your love for chocolate or how you love red sports cars or you love NASCAR or Auburn football (I had to say that for my mom).
Love is a strength and a weakness at the same time. It is the ultimate tipping point. There is nothing we won’t do to find it and there is nothing we wouldn't do to protect it once it is found. Sometimes the passion to find it and to protect it causes us to make decisions that are less than pragmatic, but without love what are we. There is a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. that goes, “[t]oo unconcerned to love and too passionless to hate, too detached to be selfish and too lifeless to be unselfish, too indifferent to experience joy and too cold to express sorrow, they are neither dead nor alive; they merely exist.”
Mere existence doesn't change the world but love has, can and will always be that one absolute that drives change.
Think about it. There is tangible, undeniable proof to this. The love for freedom has driven people all over the world to sacrifice what is nearest and dearest to them for it. For millennia people have given all of their earthly possessions, all that they hold dear and their lives for freedom. You have read about it in history books, where almost every true free society was created by sacrifice driven by love and thirst for freedom. You can see it still today in the fights in Syria, Ukraine, throughout Africa, and in Asia where people give their lives for justice which is key to the foundation to freedom.
That love for freedom is in many cases synonymous with the love for country. Think about all the heroic acts you have heard about by soldiers, leaders and everyday people who make sacrifices to protect their country. They sacrifice their futures, their happiness, and their families all for the greater good. In many cases those sacrifices are never known to others – not even to their families.
Then there is the love for another human being. No greater love than that for your spouse, your partner, or your children exists. We all have made sacrifices for love, but in some cases the greatest lesson is that true love means letting go and moving on.
Then there is the love for your pets – your dog, your cat, your horse and any animal that you consider a companion. For those whom have never had a pet, they can’t rationalize someone spending their last dollar to treat an animal with cancer who may live just another month, or even an animal that isn't theirs but they discovered after being abused, abandoned or hit by a car.
Then there is the love for a religion or an ideology, which to this day drives many of the greatest conflicts we are real time witnesses to.
Love is what drives people every day to make decisions for a candidate, a ballot question, buy a product, donate money or volunteer their time.
We are all moved by what's close to us. It's not selfish; it's not a poverty of character. It's the human condition. If you’re sentimental, you could even call it love. The world moves for love. Always has. Always will.
Love IS the greatest of all tipping points. I can’t emphasize this enough. When it has been harnessed it changes the world. But the crazy thing is that love can’t be harnessed. It is one of the rare emotions that can’t be manufactured. You can stir up hatred, lust, fear, anger, distrust, sympathy, greed, pity – but you can never create love – true love is the one thing that is natural and can’t be replicated or forced.
To quote King one more time, I leave you with this, “[r]eturning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
To make change, real change, love is the driving force. History has proven this and so will the future. We must embrace it, and not be scared of it. It is the only emotion that can truly save our world.
