“Everything is Bullshit Except for Love” - Sean Stephenson
According to Sean Stephenson, it is the only currency that really matters. Everything that is exchanged is either love or lack thereof. While I don’t always remember this while going through the drive-through at Taco Bell at two o’clock in the morning, I do understand it to be true even then.
Love is what brings a person to work in a restaurant. Hear me out now because it is gonna get deep. Having worked in many different restaurants over the year, I can tell you that love is definitely a driving factor. Many times it is the love of your family, and the contribution that you would like to make to their well-being. Many times forgoing yours. When you are connected to the larger picture, working in a restaurant is always about feeding people and the various reasons why someone can be in a drive-through at two o’clock in the morning. If it were in your home kitchen, you would be reminded that food is love. Can you connect to it in that moment on both sides of the window is the question.
Many Jedi believe that we are connected through the Force. Science tells us that we are all connected through neutrons and airflow. I personally believe that we are all one in the Force, pretending that we are separate so that we can have a human experience. I have found, that when I am present to the connection, it is hard for me to experience anything but love.
The funny thing is that pretty much no matter what the religion, there is some form of the Universal Law of Reciprocity - “Do unto others what you would have done unto you.” The Twelfth Teaching of Jediism states it this way “ Jedi believe that love and compassion are central to their lives. We must love and care for each other as we must love and care for ourselves; by doing this we envelop all life in the positivity of our actions and thoughts. We are providers and beacons of hope.”
What I am calling for is a Love Revolution! For us to remember that we are connected either by spirit, particles, or just the ground that we all stand on. When you find yourself in anger, disagreement, or hatred, look at what it is that they are doing that you also do that is causing that emotion. Now that doesn’t mean I have to agree with everyone or everything that they are doing, just that I still must come from a place of love with them.
It isn’t easy. When Erykah Badu, an American singer known for her message of love an acceptance suggested that we should send love to R. Kelly and those he may have hurt, she was literally booed off stage.
I think it is part of the human experience to want to be angry, to find ways that we are separate, to find ways that I am right and you are wrong. Yet, there is something world altering if we can take on that we are all connected and we have an obligation to love one another.
So I challenge you this month, whenever you find yourself coming from a place that isn’t love, a place of me against you, or a place of division write down three attributes that you share with that person.
I will start with two from my life this week. First is Donald Trump - I am also a white man who sometimes doesn’t understand what it is like to be in a different ethnic/socio/economic class. I sometimes want to skew facts to make me look better. I have also hid evidence of perceived wrongdoing and even lying when I was caught. The second is a friend who has been supposedly bringing me a bed over since September. It wouldn’t be so bad except he keeps telling me that he is going to bring it over, I make arraignments to make sure I am here, and at the last minute he doesn’t bring it for whatever reason. Why I found I am mad at him is because I am not always a great friend. I sometimes go days, weeks, months without calling. I have begged off going out with people coming up with flimsy excuses. I have looked at his life choices and judged him harshly because of them.
