It is Valentine time and what more appropriate moment to say that I am in love with love. I have such a good feeling when I hear the word brotherhood and an even better feeling when I see it practiced. I hate hate and can see no real advantage to its brother, vengeance. And what advantage is there to destruction as against construction?
I also have a great affection for peace and a great disaffection with world leaders who have, for thousands of years, preferred to pout and pontificate rather than work out solutions. Who have preferred to keep their power, even if it meant war. And by one count, there have been 3010 wars during the last 6000 years.
But I have lived long enough now to see a repeat of history as yesterday’s enemies become today's friends, for all wars inevitably come to an end. The same people who started whatever war in the first place, eventually sitting down and negotiating a peace.
Whether in personal relationships, family feuds, world wars, whatever the size, the reasons stay largely the same. Some wars begin from a high point of morality such as bringing down a tyrant. Others pander at a plate of foolishness. Such as a Chinese emperor who went to war over a broken tea pot, or a copyist error concerning the number of times the words et cetera were listed following a king's name.
Or, on a smaller basis, two family members fighting over a remote control, or the recent political differences.
I know human nature. After all, I've been a full-fledged member now for 84 years, but still, I, along with you I would guess, cast my vote for patience, love and peace as against hate and war. For more of the Valentine spirit to rise up at other times in the year, and by so doing, trade in grim for grin.
What's so great about love? Love doesn't just make the world go ‘round. It makes the journey worth the trip.
In the comic strip Peanuts, Lucy asks Charlie Brown, “Why are we here on earth?” He promptly replies, “To make others happy.” Lucy ponders on this for a moment and then asks another question, “Then why are the others here?”
At the beginning of the World War II, a few people called my daddy a “Nazi” for no better reason than Wyrick is a German name. It didn’t seem to matter much to them that his family had been in this country for several generations or that he had served in the United States Army in World War I.
And not too many years before that, on my mother’s side of the family, some of my Irish relations were called “micks.” It is now the year 2013, and the word is out that ALL Muslims are bad. Will such mean-spirited foolishness never stop? Will we never learn?
Plato called love, “divine madness.” Mark Twain once observed about the music of Wagner that, “It’s better than it sounds.” This is certainly true of love. It sounds good, and when practiced on a regular basis, it is truly even better than it sounds.