By Susan Wordal
My mind has been going back to a theme which was very much part of my growing up years. I was almost 4 when the Beatles came up with the song “All You Need Is Love” and released it in July 1967. Apparently, this song was Britain’s contribution to “Our World,” which was the first live global television link for a broadcast in 25 countries. We can thank John Lennon for the intentionally simple lyrics, which coincided with the “Summer of Love” and the more utopian ideals of that time. The song was not one of those that just came out of noodling around or through a specific experience or a need for a piece to fill an album, but as a request for this concert. The song then became part of the 1968 film “Yellow Submarine” and was the moral of the story. [Don’t you love being able to Google things to find out the history of something?] There is one line that sticks with me more than others when I look at the lyrics:
Nothin’ you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time
It’s easy
All you need is love…
Curiously, this theme has been part of my life in another way since college. I was a freshman entering the University of Montana and went through Rush. (Sorry, but it is something of a family legacy to go to Missoula, although my sister and some of the more extended family went to school in Bozeman.) For those of you who have never heard of this, it is the Sorority/Fraternity Recruitment week which generally precedes the first day of classes. The Fraternity I chose to join was Alpha Omicron Pi. It is a national fraternity (yes, that is the right word, even though it is a women’s fraternity and usually is classified as a sorority, but that is another story) which began in 1897 at Barnard College in New York in a windowseat in the library by 4 amazing women who understood that values should be basic and universal. As a result, the following bible verse is a strong part of that culture:
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13, 1-3 RSV)
Sometimes, I think we have forgotten the simple home truth found in both the lyrics of the song and the bible verse we have come to know by its repetition at weddings. We have forgotten our history and the lessons we should have learned from that history. Our evolution as human beings has been turned back on itself on many fronts and we need to find the strength and the courage to put love of one another ahead of our baser instincts. When confronted by others who seek to dominate us through sheer force of will, if not force on a different scale, we must find a way to overcome through love. When those who would seek to be noticed over all else are put in positions of power and influence, we have to find a way to lovingly talk through and redirect them to achieve a more empathetic and benevolent outcome for all. You see where I am going with this.
I am finding I need to remind myself of this more frequently these days, which might explain why the refrain from the Beatles’ song keeps popping into my mind. (Not to mention the trumpet riff that follows it.) I can accept that some people do not think as I do, but that does not mean I stop loving them, despite their reaction to my words or opinions, or their treatment of me. When my kids did something that was wrong or said something that was not appropriate, I found myself saying: “I love you. I am not very happy with you (or “X”) at the moment because of (fill in the blank), but I do love you.” The message seemed to get through to them, even in some pretty dark days.
My job, for many years, was to prosecute people for violating the law. Some people saw this as being diametrically opposed to loving someone. Yet, if you think about it, it is not. I was not judging someone from the standpoint of looking back on their life and deciding if they are admitted through the pearly gates. My job was to take that one action, that one choice, and evaluate it against the legal standard of whether the action was taken with purpose or with knowledge and led to the loss of property, or loss of dignity, or infliction of pain, etc. This was holding someone accountable for their actions or a specific choice at a specific time, and imposing a consequence and maybe a way for them to learn from that act and do better in the future, not judging them as people. The latter is WAY above my pay grade.
Acceptance, however, does not mean that I should stop holding fast to my belief that loving one another is the key to the troubles we have these days. It has always been the key, despite concerted efforts to disprove that notion. There are days when going back in time seems like a good idea, but each period of time had its own set of problems or hurdles to overcome. We do much better, however, when those hurdles are overcome by looking for a solution which honors each person rather than finding ways to devalue or control others by imposing a non-loving set of criteria for what is “right.”
If you open your eyes and your heart, then anything is not only possible but makes the world a better place.
All you need is love.