All We Need Is Toddler Love
Recently, my three year old figured out how to tell us he loves us. Day in and out I get these adorable “Mama, I woove you!” If he notices someone in our family is missing, he’ll say full of concern, “But I woove em!”
It’s as if his proclamation of love should tether us together.
He is catching on to something incredible—that love binds us. Love pushes us to move towards proximity. It positions us to care and then leads us to act for one another’s flourishing.
It’s love, not hate, that cultivates a better world. Am I right?
And although you all probably shouted back, “yes!” and like all changemakers before you, align with the Beatles’ lyrics, “All you need is love,” I don’t see it. I am not convinced that love is our primary drive.
And if it isn’t, what is? Rage? Hate?
What We Can Learn From The Superbowl
The Super Bowl is old news now, I guess. But I’ve still been sitting on how what we learned from it can guide us towards love.
My daughter is a big fan of Bad Bunny, and as such, some of his songs have sneaked into my own playlist. Personally, I loved the half-time show, while my daughter would literally shout with excitement when she recognized another artist or song woven into the performance.
This Super Bowl show was one complete celebration of America, but not the side that usually gets attention. I wonder how many of the messages of this Super Bowl performance were lost without a familiarity with Latino culture.
As I watched it, I kept thinking….Ooooohhh, a lot of people are not going to like this! With an escalating battle over immigration these days and prejudice becoming more obvious, it was more than relevant. White supremacy—an often subtle belief that those with lighter skin are more deserving—often goes unchecked and hidden inside us, until something knocks against this paradigm (like this performance).
This twisting sensation inside is a great indicator that we need to grow a little more to become loving to all people.
- If you felt a little curmudgeondy about this show, I get it. This guide was made for you. Its a roast, but not a personal attack. We can take it.
- If its been hitting you that the United States will be majority multicultural in less than twenty years, you might want to take a few minutes to learn about some of our other cultures (yes, like the Latino culture). This post shares a little bit about some of the cultural nods happening throughout the performance you can learn from. Better yet—ask your Latino friends.
Love’s Power ❤️
What got a lot of attention, though was Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio’s quote: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.” This line isn’t a new idea. It echos civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr., writer Elizabeth George Speare, and plenty of things other average people like me have stated.
But it was his quote that was up there, emblazoned loudly in block letters on a billboard that 125.6 million people read. And made us all wonder if this was a nice thought, or if love is really that powerful.
How powerful is love? I want you to ask yourself this question, and judge love’s power by how you’ve seen or experienced it. Were you loved in your childhood? By whom? How? What about as a young adult? As a more mature adult? What about your ancestors, how did they experience love? What relationships have been long-term because of the love? What about your experiences of love from organizations? Communities? From your faith? Kindness from strangers? Or because of the justice of laws? Or the compassion and considerations of policy?
Is love actually powerful? If you aren’t sure, that’s okay. I hope you someday experience love. In the meantime, I encourage you to find someone to walk you through processing your experience of love because your story matters.1
But if you do see love’s power in your own life, think about how that love can multiply—how it can change the world. If love is this powerful, we need to act on it. If it’s true, we need to let it motivate us. For here we are, with the most powerful force for good right at our finger tips. In this case the Beatles might be spot on—all we really need is love. So let’s use it.
“The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
-Bad Bunny
