Valentines musings

Well its the big Valentines Day, love it or leave it it is a nice day of people showing love and here in Denver the snow has been falling all day as the candy hearts find their way into my hands. No great snow flakes but that light drizzle snow that makes you feel like perhaps the snow will continue forever. For my love to everyone I handed out, or more precisely had a bag of valentine "fortunes." a collection of quotes on different hearts. Some fun ones were,
"There are more love songs than anything else. If songs can make you do something we'd all love one another." ~Frank Zappa.
" When you fish for love, bait with your heart not your brain." ~Mark Twain
"Anyone can be passionate but it takes real lovers to be silly." ~Rose Franken
And some more serious ones were...
"Love is a fruit in season at all times and within reach of every hand." ~Mother Teresa
"I have found that the paradox that if I love till it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love." ~Mother Teresa
" When one has once fully entered the realm of love, the world no matter how imperfect becomes rich and beautiful, it consists solely of opportunities for love." ~Kierkegaard
"Hatred darkens life, love illuminates it." ~Martin Luther King Jr.


When I started writing the quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. I thought about how appropriate Valentines day is during Black History Month because Martin Luther King was all about love and about the power that love had here on earth. Today I would like to bring up a discussion point. Specifically it was inspired by a comment regarding my signature line on Hotmail which reads,
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall - think of it, always." ~Gandhi

The comment was questioning the validity of this statement. I know that there a quite a few people who have issues with Gandhi for one reason or another but I would like to focus on the statement itself.

I do believe that this statement is true because even, at the lowest cynical level a love of great power, a love of power in general will drive people to overthrow current tyrants in favor of their own rule. But at a greater level, the way of love has won by way of the sometimes great but often small victories.
Look at the histories of every country, every family, even every person. For each there was a moment when darkness, pain, and fear were ruling all the senses. No light could be seen, no peace could be heard, the soft voice of hope deep inside could not speak even a sound, no soft grass could be felt and the sweet taste of peace was replaced by the bitterness of war. However, NO country has been left in that moment for ever. Those moments are far outnumbered by the moments of peace.
I think of those countries in Latin America so plagued by colonialism and dictatorship. Some are edging their ways out of that moment. A victory.
The Balkans and other former USSR countries pocked by mistrust, failed promises. The Balkans is while still unstable is competing again in the World Cup Tournaments. Victory.
Countries in Africa, a tangle of colonial and post-colonial deals and systems. Truth about these systems intent and the love of the other has seen victory in rebuilding Rwanda as a unified country.
There are still so many victories that I have not mentioned. How is it that we are defining these victories which have so often been left uncelebrated. The victory of a child even getting to school through the chaos of war, the victory of a laugh celebrated in the trenches of the foot soldiers during a ceasefire or during the Christmas eve truce on the front lines of WW1, which fully halted the war there. That surely was a victory for love and truth. Time and again peace has prevailed throughout history. Countries, cities, communities are always seeking to regain that equilibrium of peace and security that at times seems so unattainable. Even our own individual bodies are constantly seeking balance our inner ear, such a small organ contributes to that achievement.
How small truth and love seems in the mushroom clouds of war that surround us. How quietly the voice of love speaks to us in the roar of anger and guns.
Love of country, of city, of family, friends, religion, politics convinces people to take some form of action in the face of tyranny. People have fled their countries, people have fought with arms, fought with words and nonviolent confrontation.
I think that we so often hear about the failures about the "slides into chaos" and "spirals into civil wars," that the drums of war have procured the mike feed for so long that the peace that occupies those moments between stories is forgotten. Or worse not even known.
In these cases where "peace" has flourished sometimes truth has been left aside in favor of peace, however truth always has a way of finding its way back. A great example is the Spanish civil war ( and the events with Franco) or the American internment of Japanese Americans during WW2, both were left unmentioned in history for so long, but is now, slowly gaining greater and greater recognition not only in the collective memory of people but in the mainstream of society and politics.
Even where it seems a dictator is replaced by another dictator or war by war. I think that even if, for only a moment, the truth was reached it was reached and something was changed because of it. What the truth consisted of changed as the moments of peace passed and a new truth had to birthed and struggle for freedom. That is the eternal cycle of life. If the world were static then not only would we be unable to learn about a hidden truth, perhaps there would be no hidden truth. Well before I get into 'what if' ramblings, the truth of the world as I see it is, that even as we learn a lesson of peace, the dynamic of that world changes and that lesson of peace must be learned again within that new dynamic. It may be easier, to learn in the subsequent eras however it still must be learned. Those moments of peace and truth running free is what we collectively carry from one struggle to the next hoping again to achieve balance.
A great quote that I just thought of is this, "If you lose God try looking where you last met." So simple yet sometimes the most difficult thing to do.

Well I look forward to discussing this further with you all, but to leave you with another Valentine fortune....

well OK two since I think this first one is great, but the second is really light and funny.

"Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction." Antoine de Saint Exupery

"Always love your enemies- nothing annoys them more." Oscar Wilde.