Remember the Waylon Jennings song? The lyrics, “maybe it’s time we got back to the basics of love”, always seem to come to mind when I consider our social ills. We, as a society, seem to be dividing along every increasing fault lines. Race. Gender. Religion. Politics. Etc. Why??
We tend to use hash tags and change our profile picture, but do nearly nothing but offend and infuriate. At the end of the day, we feel like we have done something to right the world and never realize how much more wrong the world is becoming. Waylon was right. We need to get back to the basics of love.
One of my daily mantras is “I am third”. It comes from the Gale Sayers book of the same title and refers to the idea that my God is first, my family and friends are second, and I am third. This is the approach I try (albeit poorly) to take in my life. If we all considered this our daily mantra, how much better might the world be?
Now, I know there are some who don’t believe or question the existence of “God”, and I would not be living “I am third” if I did not respect this. For such people, I ask only that they consider the Judeo-Christian definition of God as “love”. In other words, love comes before all else. What effect would this shift have in the world?
Carpe momento!