The L-Word

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."
- The Prime Minister played by Hugh Grant in Love Actually

The letter "L" starts off some of my favorite words in the English vernacular. Some of my favorites are as follows: Lust, Lick, Lips. All of them start with "L" and I would submit that the English language would be significantly worse off without these lovely words dancing off our tongues.

When I about the word "Love" over Valentine's Day, the first thing that I thought about was Bruce Springsteen's album, Tunnel of Love. This is my favorite of Bruce's work. The reason being is this: this collection of songs explores Love in all of it's nuances. There is a lot more to Love than just the romantic expression. There are several other shades that are often forgotten about and rarely celebrated. So over this V-Day I thought about the nuances and agree with the aforementioned quotes conclusion that "love actually is all around."

Lastly, I had a flashback to my college days and a lesson I learned about love. Each semester the Athletic Department published a newsletter called "Jock Talk." Each team submitted an article, they were gathered, organized, and published. Our captain at the time, Asaf Shafir--who is currently a pioneer in the burgoneing Israeli film industry--wrote an article called "Feel The Love." It had very little to do with tennis, and was more about being an engaged an authentic human being.

Asaf's article stated "Love is a state of being where you want absolutely nothing to change." You are so in the moment, so right there that nothing else in the world matters. One of his examples of Love was when Asaf would crack a forehand winner down-the-line. At that moment, he wanted nothing to change, Time would stop, and he felt completely alive. His conclusion was simple: "Remember to feel the love."

This is very wise. Nothing in the world needs to be changed. When a person genuinely believes this and rolls with this, the entire Universe opens up. Everything is charged, and everything is wonderful. Sounds crazy, but this place does exist. So, as Asaf would say, "Remember to feel the love."