Is Love Really All We Need?

The things on our refrigerators are subtle reminders of how we are nurtured, overall

The Beatles wrote the song “All You Need Is Love” in 1964, and while I think each band member tried to believe it at one time or another, the rest of us have more or less treated the concept as a rhetorical question ever since. Looking back, I have to wonder how that simple declaration has shaped our collective thoughts and feelings about the power of love over time? We are all aware that we need food and water and breath to sustain life, so it’s nearly impossible to actually believe that we could subsist on the effects of embracing more love. I mean, the truth is backed by the science of biology, right?

So why do so many ancient teachings encourage us to become aware of love’s full expression in order to access our own? And why do the deeper questions about our matter and purpose still roll around in the backroads of our minds, unanswered except by faith? To take it even further, why do all of our religions and philosophies operate from the same essential fabric: our connections to ourselves, nature and each other? 

Is it because ultimately, love is the answer? And if so, how do we all arrive at a place where we can support our ego’s interests while simultaneously caring for the larger collective as part of the fabric of our being? That seems to be the alpha and omega of religion as a whole – they just have different doctrines on how to make that happen. Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da.

My theoretical opinion: They will all be effective, if put into regular practice. Love is the underlying root system of everything we do, and it keeps us connected in magically unbreakable ways, regardless of how disconnected we perceive it. Our most educated opinions about it have no effect on how it works, but they do have sole influence on our awareness of how it works for us, individually. There is some version of this statement on everyone’s social media feed right now, because the universe is always acting to draw our attention back to the awareness of our forgotten connections.

Fact: Humans exist in a constant state of reaction, both active and passive. I’ve started to believe that love’s full spectrum (from abundance to absence) really is the baseline catalyst for all of it. We are all responding, again and again, to the degree of love we are experiencing at any given time. That is the nature of our being. Every single emotion we feel is generated from the organic ups and downs that come with living. 

Within the space of love, we are eventually able to access compassion and forgiveness for people who have “really crossed a line”, including – and most importantly – ourselves. When we don’t feel connected to love in some way, it becomes impossible to act from that arena –a fact that is easily forgotten when we go around expecting certain behaviors from people who just aren’t feeling it. When a person’s feelings remain malnourished/undernourished for an extended period of time, that person can and will remain detached from the love that exists all around them because they aren’t in a position to see it. How many different people are forced to operate in the world completely unaware of the resources that love could provide - simply because they don’t have a way to feel it? It’s heart-wrenching.

We are prone to consider ourselves supreme beings because we have opposable thumbs and brains that can work creatively and independently from the Whole of everything else. Our minds are like a highly personalized application running right alongside Natural Order for the most part, but also able to deviate from it on a whim. I consider human perspective to be the scientific result of taking a step outside of the earth’s rhythms by applying the filters of the uniquely developed human mind. 

This is where we all deviate from common sense, because we are no longer connected to each other by shared truths, ideas and expectations. This is where we separate, become highly individuated, and develop our creativity and our judgement. Having our own customized filter is endlessly fascinating, but also encourages the disconnect that is currently being perpetuated throughout our population at supersonic speeds. 

Consider this: though we do our best to represent ourselves to people we trust, we will eventually hit a wall trying to put all the right sentences together in the right order so that they have a full and complete understanding of who we are in complete detail. No one is immune to their own impressions, and our minds work much faster than our ability to form words. This is the ultimate source of our diminished awareness of our full abilities. I believe the evidence of this shows up in everything, one way or another, as communication breakdowns and breakthroughs are daily occurrences all over our world. 

My daughter posed a question yesterday that gave me pause, and I will likely revise my answer every time I think about how it could have affected our lives. The question: what if George Harrison and John Lennon were alive today and it was Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr who had died? My head did a full inner rotation as I tried to imagine that world. We concluded that The Beatles would not be as revered as they are right now if those roles were reversed. 

We played out various imaginary scenarios, all with similar outcomes. It seems apparent that one way or another, John Lennon was meant to strike the chords of our hearts with awareness. All of his efforts came from a place of love, even when they didn’t appear that way. His ego was often out in front, and his outrage began to lead his charge. He asked us to look at love from many different angles, as he sought new and inventive ways to experience love. Sometimes they looked dangerous, or self-centered, or completely bonkers, but he was always leaning into the collective experience of being human – and asking that we do the same.

Rethinking the intentions behind All You Need Is Love, perhaps it was intended to be figurative (McCartney-style)? Either way, I consider myself lucky for being alive while The Beatles worked on working it out. It leaves me searching for love in its purest form, because deep down the question still persists within me: Can it be true, somewhere in the cosmos, that all we need is love? In my most ideal thoughts, I believe that we aren’t truly separate from each other. We only appear that way because of the organic distortions that our brains create with our individual perspective.

As I wrap it up, I’ve pulled together some choice Beatles lyrics and fashioned them into a Frankenstein-inspired jumble of a poem. (Spoiler alert: this poem doesn’t rhyme). As we know, they were beyond prolific on the subject of LOVE, and I have really appreciated this opportunity to play around with their words and meaning from an ideal mindset. I encourage anyone to try their mind at this artistically rewarding exercise – I truly felt like I was at play within their lovely sentiments.

It’s finally a New Year and I’m feeling happy to be here. I am grateful for all of the amazing people in my life. And it was a lot of fun getting creative with carving out my own Beatles riff to share with the hope of encouraging others to do the same… (Lennon-Style). So may I introduce to you, the act you’ve known for all these years, twisted and shouted in the name of Love:

…Even though here in Kansas City we didn’t make it 3 hours into the New Year before someone felt compelled to take someone else’s life. I have to wonder where that person first began to feel disconnected from the love we are all meant to share?

The Beatles: Universal Love and it’s Distortions  (with apologies, not permissions)

My mother was of the sky, 

my father was of the earth, 

but I am of the universe.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night. 

Take these sunken eyes and learn to see.

You were only waiting for this moment to be free.

Nowhere man, please listen.

You don’t know what you’re missing.

Boy, 

you’re going to carry that weight a long time.

And when the broken-hearted people 

living in the world agree;

There will be an answer.

Whisper words of wisdom.

Let it be. 

It seems like years since it’s been clear.

And when the night is cloudy, 

there is still a light that shines on me.

Here comes the sun and I say: 

Try to see it my way — while you see it your way?

With every mistake, 

we must surely be learning…

I’ll tell you something I think you’ll understand:

Limitless undying love surrounds me

like a thousand suns.

Here there and everywhere;

knowing that love is to share.

You can celebrate everything you want.

You can radiate everything you are.

Do what you want to do,

and go where you want to go

Shine until tomorrow…

All together now…

arrive without traveling 

see all without looking 

do all without doing

The world is at your command!

Love is all you need.