The Power of Love
I don’t post very often because I get overwhelmed. I get afraid of saying the wrong thing. I get shy. But here are some things I’ve been thinking about this week as we approach what will inevitably be a historical moment regardless of what happens.
I’ve been thinking a lot about love, about what a powerful force it is. In many stories I read as a young person, the villain got defeated by love because it is so obviously the opposite force to evil and the only thing powerful enough to defeat greed, corruption, hatred, and so on.
I don’t think that needs to stop with young adult fiction. Love is powerful.
The villain we are facing isn’t a single person or even a single party or group of people. The villain is the forces in our society that have prioritized making a profit at the expense of human life, especially Black and brown life. It is the forces that have given us the inhumane and impossible choice of choosing between each other rather than getting to choose everyone.
I believe in humans and in our ability to create change. I have dedicated my life to being part of changing the fabric of our society. There is a lot that humans have messed up in the world, but there’s also a lot that we’ve gotten right and are figuring out.
So here are some questions I have:
- Whom do you love?
- What do you love?
- What does it look like to anchor and ground your decisions and actions in the next week from a place of love?
- How can love build power? What does it look and feel like to build power from a place of love?
I’m choosing to fight for the soul of our democracy because of love. Because I love life and the people in my life and the people I haven’t met yet and the people I don’t agree with and the people I’m scared of. Because I believe that love can change things in an instant. Because I believe that another world is not only possible but much closer than we realize. Because history only repeats itself if we let it.
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, USA
Reprinted from the e-mail discussion list for RC Community members
(Present Time 202, January 2021)