Inaugural thoughts

What does love have to do with it?

Well, it took me a while to really settle on my answer. Fifty plus years figuratively dipping my toe but not jumping in, I suppose, until all of my "teachers" had their say. At least enough to sway me. But I think the answer is: everything!

I've come to believe that, acknowledged or not and often mostly hidden from view, love does propel our lives from their inception. I think about it this way now: everything is a gift!

Coincidentally, just when I needed it the most, I encountered the bumper sticker wisdom that entitles this blog and was struck by its simple profundity almost a year ago now. It may seem banal, even trite, unless your heart is prepared and ready to resonate with its message. Obviously, my heart does resonate with it now and has for some time.

My heart was first prepared and strengthened over the years by a loving, prayerful, single Mom and her brothers and sisters and extended family. Then a great older sister & brother. And then a very loving wife and two great kids.

But the bumper sticker "stuck", ironically, because my heart had recently been crushed. This was shortly after my extended family had experienced the tragic, senseless murder of two beautiful, promising, bright and loving young women of faith. And little did I know, it was just a month before one of my young teenage nephews would just as tragically and shocklingly take his own life.

Only love and faith can carry a person - or a family - through awful events like these.

There's no denying that life's often an intense struggle. But without love it would simply be unbearable. As Eric Bibb in "Diamond Days" says:

"Some days you get diamonds,
some days nickels and dimes,
some days sparkle,
some days nothing shines,
some days you're given,
some days you chose,
some days all you're doing is paying dues.

... you try to take it all in stride ..."

I've become convinced that choosing to love and be loved is the key to my survival. Love is a choice, a committed decision about what attitude I will take regardless of circumstances.

I draw my most recent support from someone smarter, wiser, and far wealthier than me, Warren Buffett. See his assessment of what constitutes true wealth for him now, after a lifetime of accumulating vast economic wealth, on page 761 in the hard back edition of "The Snowball..." by Alice Schroeder.

(I hope Alice doesn't mind - but I think Warren would applaud - the frugal fact that I didn't follow my usual biblioholic approach and buy the book as soon as it came out. Instead, I reserved it and checked it out from my local public library. In atonement for not personally enriching the author, I highly recommend that you buy or borrow and read her book for the engaging story she writes. When the paperback edition comes out, I'm sure a copy will find its way into my personal library.)

One deep question I think "The Snowball" helped answer for me is: if I'm so smart, how come I'm not rich? Well, I may not be a billionaire (yet), but I am rich in the ways that Warren and I fully agree on, I find.