Love is All We Really Have

Is it true what The Beatles said: “All you need is love?” In my opinion, yes. I’ll even go a step further and say: “Love is all we really have.” From my perspective, love is the center of everything worthwhile, it includes and expands far beyond the romantic variety, and if I can honestly claim any religion, love is it. Love is the only thing I believe in 100%.

Love is what makes life worth living – in my opinion.

The English Oxford Dictionary‘s top definitions of love are:

“An intense feeling of deep affection.”

“A great interest and pleasure in something.”

The Ancient Greeks had 6 different words for love. Yes! Magazine summed them up beautifully:

• Eros, or sexual passion
• Philia, or deep friendship
• Ludus, or playful love
• Agape, or love for everyone
• Pragma, or longstanding love
• Philautia, or love of the self

I like all those definitions and types of love. I’d like to add to those ideas of love by considering an even broader definition, based solely on my own perceptions and experience.

Additional types of love, as I see it:

• Love of life; Life is love.
• Love of everything; Everything is love.
• Love of existence and non-existence; Existence and non-existence are love.
• Love of time and timelessness; Time and timelessness are love.
• Love of the creator/God; The creator/God is love.

Additional truths about love, as I see it:

• Love is the most powerful force there is.
• Love is kind and cooperative.
• Love is the inherent goodness, or potential for goodness, in everything.
• Love can be cold, calculating, level-headed, tough, hard, and business-like, and also warm, spontaneous, effusive, easygoing, soft, and friendly. Love can be a paradox.

I’ve developed these philosophies, because love is the only thing I really believe in. To me everything else is an extension of love, in a way. Love has a way of making everything okay. I can’t claim total accuracy in all my perceptions and assumptions. But I do believe I’m close to the bullseye. And I can’t prove anything. We’re talking about the enduring mysteries of existence here. With all of that being said, looking at life through the lens of love feels right. It’s an effective working philosophy that helps me live life with optimism, vigor, courage, hope, happiness, and love.

By recognizing that love reigns supreme, and by trusting love, it helps me face the unpleasant realities of life. I’m going to dive deep into the dark side of existence for a moment. Life is incredibly beautiful. But also, the world is full of uncertainly, injustice, hate, pain, and violence. Life is full of disappointments, struggle, and death. My own life, like everyone else’s, is riddled with shortcomings, hardships, and frustrations. These are difficult realities.

When I consider my own future death, the deaths of my nearest and dearest, the mortality of everyone, and the temporary nature of everything, including Earth, sometimes it all seems so pointless. In a 1,000 years, I’ll likely be completely forgotten. In 100,000 years, I’ll almost certainly be forgotten. And where are we going after death? And why are we alive? And what does it all mean? We can only guess. I don’t know, and I honestly don’t think we will ever know the answers while we are alive. Or maybe ever. How can we accept that? Well of course, we have no choice. We were born into these mysteries, and they are a part of life.

How can we come to terms with that? In the face of uncertainty, darkness, and mortality, how can we live good lives? That’s where love comes in and saves the day. It’s a wellspring of hope, joy, and will to improve. Love is more powerful than darkness, and even within darkness exists the potential of transformative love. Also, love is able to fortify us in the hard times. And thankfully, during the good times, love can also make us feel like life is utopia.

That’s how I see it. I deeply believe love is all we really have, and all we really need. All good things are an extension of love. Love is infinitely valuable. Love is timeless. Love transmutes the limitations of reality. The love that I feel, experience, and express today has ripple effects that will have inherent meaning forever, no matter what exists or does not exist. Love creates love. In that way, I can accept death, and the temporary nature of my existence, and everything else. And I can live in a world that isn’t perfect, and feel that my loving efforts to improve my own life, and the lives of others, mean something. Because love is eternal, universal, and unconditional.

Love is the best stuff in life. Love is the main ingredient in the good life. Love is what it’s all about.

Thank you for hearing my views on love and life. Also, I fully respect your personal philosophical and religious viewpoints. We might have a lot in common. But even if we don’t, I believe we can peacefully co-exist and respect each other. Any which way, I wish you all the best and lots of love.