Yesterday, we lost a father, a son, a brother, a friend. And as I sit with the lessons I've learned from his humanitarian world, it all seems so stupidly clear: the only thing that can really change this world is love.
That sounds cheesy and sentimental -- but only because our habits in problem solving are to first destroy, then make everyone be like us. But over and over again, that rarely ever creates anything of value. Well, it rarely creates a viable path for anyone who isn't the one driving the vision.
We can't fix the ills in this world with hate. That is what separated the rich from the poor, and created the picket fence between privileged and not. I am sick to death of hate. If I learned anything from my dear friends who grieve today, it is that love creates value in the world.
And -- please do me a favor. When you are doorbelling, or phone banking, or whatever you are doing to help our election process along (you do this, right???) -- and you stumble across a hateful person that opposes you politically -- don't hate them back.
Okay, I'm not going to tell you to love them. Hate is not the opposite of love. The opposite of love is indifference. Just don't polarize the world any more than it is. Maybe someday, then, we can get to where everyone puts their best ideas forward -- instead of using their worst ideas to thwart their opponents.
It is the sublime to the ridiculous, I suppose. But let's try to be driven by results rather than hate. It is possible to be angry without being hateful -- although you might not think so if you randomly turned on the news today.
But even that is different than love. Don't let all of that distract you from who and what you love. In the end, the love we hold is the only thing we have...
And please, if you will, send your best thoughts or prayers or whatever you can to my dear friends who grieve so deeply.