“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”
—Morrie Schwartz
As the noise of the news continues to get louder, meaner, more confusing, more divisive, more violent, and more heartbreaking, I have found myself trying to look for the cracks in between.
Yes, the cracks. As singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen wrote in his song “Anthem,” “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
Lately, I’ve been choosing to widen my gaze beyond the daily news I consume and seek out the good—the light, the love, and the truth—that’s shining through the cracks. Surprisingly, I don’t have to look very far, because I see so many great examples of light, love, and integrity everywhere I look. Yes, I do.
I hear songs about love. I read about concerts celebrating oneness and marches for tolerance and understanding. I meet people who are doing their best to help their communities and be of service to humanity.
Right now, I find myself trying to turn away from the grown men and women who routinely hurl insults at one another on social media and TV. I find myself turning away from those in Washington, DC, who seem to delight in the “he said/she said” wars, while millions of our fellow citizens are struggling. They’re struggling in unsafe neighborhoods and schools. They’re struggling to survive paycheck to paycheck. And they’re living in fear that they will lose their health care or other vital services.
Sure, I still follow the news. I’m a journalist and a citizen, and I want to be informed. I just don’t want to be taken down by what I’m witnessing play out in our politics and our national dialogue. Instead, I’m choosing to focus on the examples of love that I see, because that’s what reinforces my belief in humanity. That’s what inspires me to work harder, do more, and focus on hope even more.
Now, I know the word love gets thrown around a lot, and I myself have struggled with it in my life. But it’s still my favorite four-letter word! Thank God I know what it feels like to be loved. Thank God for the opportunity we all have to spread love whenever we can, because I know it’s the healing and unifying connection we’re all seeking. And yet, it seems to slip away so easily. Why is that?
Why is exhibiting love sometimes harder to do than exhibiting meanness? Why do bullying, grandstanding, and powermongering so often take precedence over love? Why do so few leaders talk of love? Why do so few leaders exhibit it on the world stage for us to witness? Is it because being loving is regarded as weak or soft?
It’s not. As my friend Elizabeth Lesser once said, love is a muscular concept. It takes strength to give love and to receive it. It takes strength to pursue it and to make it a guiding value in your life.
I don’t know about you, but I’m so over the meanness, the negativity, and the gaslighting. I’m so over leaders who threaten or intimidate. I don’t want leaders without any emotional intelligence. I don’t want leaders who are too scared to even talk of love, much less lead with love. I just don’t, and I’m not afraid to say it.
The good news is that looking between the cracks gives us glimpses of the leaders among us who are leading with love and who have the guts to say so. They are there, and they, not the screamers, are the ones with strength.
So, my fellow citizens, if you have love in your heart, step up and step out. You are what the world needs now more than ever. Love is the most powerful weapon on the planet. Imagine if we all decided to lead with it.
As Martin Luther King Jr. once said: “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. . . . Do to us what you will and we will still love you.”
Imagine if we all spoke from that space. Imagine if we all interacted from that space. Imagine if we all approached one another with love, light, and truth.
It is within us. We just need to let it rise to the top and lead with it. We need our leaders to lead with it.
Love: it’s our best defense, and it’s the only way all this other noise will fade into the background.
Dear God, thank you that you are the God of love and that your love is the light that shines in this present darkness. May it shine into my heart and give me the strength and compassion to love others like you do. There is no weapon and no instrument for change on our planet more powerful than your love. Amen.