Love Is Still Relevant

In July 2018 and February 2020, I posted blog entries related to Love. In both of those posts I talk about the importance of love and the benefit of love in our lives. I also talked about why I choose to focus on love in my writings – because the world is filled with so much hate. July 2018, I focused on letting Love lead the way in your life and in February 2020, I referenced podcast episodes that I recorded related to how to Love yourself and others. The theme of both of those writings on Love focused on Love being the only thing that could cure the ills of this world and more specifically, this country. In both of those posts, I talked about how Love helps us to see how ridiculous it is to hate someone because of the color of their skin.

As I write this post, we are just a few days away from the officer who killed George Floyd being found guilty and police officers killing a 16-year old African-American girl and seriously injuring another unarmed Black man. The focus of this post, isn’t to necessarily focus on those extremely unsettling situations that are still difficult for me to talk about; but to focus on the relevance of Love. I believe that we are experiencing these horrendous acts of violence against African-American people and one another because there is a lack of Love in our society. I believe that we are not fully Loving ourselves, one another, or even this country.

There are those that will say that they Love this country, but I think that if you really Love this country then you would not want to see such hatred, destruction, and violence perpetrated against citizens of this country. When you truly Love yourself, it is easy to love the next person and treat them with dignity, respect, and kindness. When you truly Love yourself, you understand how utterly ridiculous and ignorant it is for you to hate another person because of the color of their skin, ethnicity, language spoken, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, or any of the other unimportant factors that we use to divide ourselves.

I believe that Love is still relevant and needed immediately in this country, our lives, and society. I am not talking about the mushy, starry-eyed Love of the Hallmark Channel movies. I am talking about the brotherly Love that was taught in the Bible. The kind of Love that opened your heart to have compassion towards your brother/sister. The kind of Love that says we may have a difference of opinion about a subject, but we can still respectfully disagree and still be friends (unless that disagreement is rooted in ideals that promote oppression or my right to exist). I am talking about the kind of Love that recognizes when privilege has contributed to and caused the oppression of another group. I am also talking about the kind of Love that keeps an open-mind to ideas, opinions, and experiences that are different from their own.

This one post or the other posts that I have written are not enough to fully talk about the importance of Love and the place it should hold in our lives. Right now this post is so difficult for me to write because my heart has been heavy with the burden of the police killings of men and women who look like me. It is difficult for me to write this post right now when the world seems so filled with hate and shallow expressions of unity. However, I push through and continue to write about Love because I want to leave this world a better place for my two nieces and all of the children who will one day inherit the country and world that we are preparing for them. I want that world to be one filled with Love, compassion, and one where they do not have to fear being killed because of the color of their skin.

To all of the adults, it is up to us to shape this world into a better place for the children that will follow us. It is up to us to let Love lead the way and rid this country and world of racism, sexism, ageism, classism, and all of the other isms that are destroying this country and world. Love is is still so very relevant because it is the very fabric of who we are as humans. Love is relevant because it is Love that will change this country and world for the better. It is Love that will open our hearts to treat each other with more respect, kindness, compassion, and generosity. If we truly want this country to be great, then we have to understand that Love is still relevant and Love is the only thing that will cure the ills of this country, world, and society.

I challenge each person that will read this post to examine themselves and honestly answer if Love is relevant in your life. I then challenge you to examine your life and determine what steps you can take to let more Love in your life and demonstrate the relevance of Love in your life. I further challenge you to demonstrate Love each day in how you treat those that may be different from you, in the words that you speak to others, and the decisions that you make that may be promoting racism and oppression.

I am ready for more Love in my life, this country, and world. I am ready for a better country and world where Love is still relevant.

Yours in Love, Dr. Daphne