Seems like everybody’s talking and truth and love these days. They’re good things to talk about. Very important dimensions of the human condition. I think they go together. To love something is such a delightful quality, it’s too bad we
Seems like everybody’s talking and truth and love these days. They’re good things to talk about. Very important dimensions of the human condition. I think they go together.
To love something is such a delightful quality, it’s too bad we can’t go to the store and buy it. And, there’s the rub, so many folks today think that’s what you do. Love comes right along with that orange cashmere cardigan. Know what? It doesn’t.
There’s a mix up here. Buying stuff doesn’t buy love. Fact is, love can’t be bought. It must be given. And you have to have it before you can give. And the more you give, the more you have.
We’re not talking about romance, love for your kids or your husband or your family. Once again there’s a mix-up. Of course it’s great to have a loving family, a loving husband, loving kids. One can hope loving comes along with the package but it still isn’t love.
Love is a feeling. It comes from the heart, not the head, and it can be focused on anything. It’s warm and tingly. It has a human scent that has nothing to do with Shalimar. It has a voice that has nothing to do with singing. It is the music of the spheres that makes you dance en point inside. It’s the taste of maple syrup on your tongue. You can see it in the eyes of those who have it. Little kids and animals, too, recognize it and respond. With love.
Animals — all animals — and little kids sense it immediately. And they send it back. In myths and legends, according to folklore, what you “send out” comes back times three. So love the world around you and it will love you back.
Mind you, I’m not talking about insipidity. Love won’t turn you into a little goody two-shoes. As a matter of fact, it may send you in the opposite direction. There’s something very loving about speaking the truth, even if it makes others angry. That’s how they rid themselves of their anger and rage. It’s how the truth, in them, comes out. How the truth in what they are, shows itself.
Truth and love walk hand in hand.
Therefore, it’s why it’s hated so deeply by those who do not have it. Cannot feel it. Taste it. Breathe it. See it. Hear it.
I think, with almost all animals, it’s a given. Maybe with little kids, too. But for some, little kids and animals, it’s deliberately murdered in cold blood. Destroyed.
Never to be seen or heard or felt or tasted or breathed in like the scent of spring.
One of my favorite things to love is a tree. Do you know they defy the law of gravity? They grow toward the sky — upward — not toward the earth — downward.
The secret, I think: find something you can love. Unconditionally. Something in plain sight. Always. Go and share. Everyday. It’ll come back times three.
• Bettejo Dux is a Kalaheo resident and author of “The Scam: A madcap romp through North Shore Kauai.”
