What's Love Got To Do With It?

Some of you are of an age that you recognize the title of a Tina Turner song in my title for today's post. You might be wondering what love has to do with improving our health, wellness and wholeness (HW2) - or to improve the possibility that our HW2 can get better? Interestingly, love (or lack thereof) has never once entered into the discussion of what is wrong with our current system of healthcare. Information abounds on the various discrepancies, injustices, deficiencies, poor coordination, lack of services, lack of caring, isolation, etc., in our current delivery system. Yet, no one seems to want to confront a basic truth in much of our public discourse nowadays, the lack of love and caring for each other; an almost total lack of kindness and generousity. Love, unconditional and extravagant, is what is described as an ideal or the goal of living by all major religions. It is "the narrow way", the "path of enlightenment", the way that leads to abundant life. In our current adolescent and narcissistic (I know, redundant wording) society, love of self and self interest has assumed a level of primacy and all else pales in comparison. My own needs and desires take precedence over the needs of the other whether that's at a local, national or international level. See any of the current debates in local, state or national politics - who's needs are really being served in the discussion? The self interested and dualistic mindset (I vs. It, We vs. They, Us vs. Them) which characterizes most of the developed world has led us to a place where without significant personal and communal transformation, we are destined to fail in our moral and ethical duties to each other. We can not make difficult or painful decisions from a self-interested place, because everything is seen as a win-lose scenario that I must always win in order to be succesful and self-fulfilled. Love, unconditional and extravagant, has everything to do with changing how we live this life that we've been gifted. Agape love brings us to a place of, as Victor Frankl put it, self-transendence which leads to self-actualization (see "Man's Search for Meaning"). To put it in other words (albeit Christian) by becoming more than our small selves we become abundantly alive and become all that God wishes us to be. We also create a community that is focused more on other's needs than our own. In this way, we see the other as fully human and as much in need of blessing as ourselves. We create new programs and policies that lift people up instead of keeping them down. We use money as a tool instead of covet it as an idol. We take pride in the advancement of all, even if we are left behind in the process. What's love got to do with it (?) - everything! This week, look for ways to be more loving. Search your religious texts for examples and live them out. Support just causes and organizations that are trying to make a difference through love and understanding. Look for ways to get out of yourself and into someone else's shoes for a time - it will be uncomfortable, but it will be remarkable. Peace for the journey, Dan