Love and Live

Love is unarguably the most precious blessing of God bestowed on us human beings. It is simply the one thing that sets us apart from the whole universe. If we look at animals, the closest species to humans, we’ll find that an animal is only driven by its instinct. Humans on the other hand have a more elaborate and complicated existence.

What drives any one of us to do anything in life evidently ends up to be bound by some external motivation. Internal motivation works more apparently with basic needs such as eating, drinking, surviving, etc. But distinction in life does not come by unless strongly driven by something external. The strongest external motivator is love. When you love someone and you want to please them, this will drive you to doing wonders. One can do radical changes in their life because of the effect of someone they love on them. Now, why is this the case? Why is one person’s effect on us much greater than our own will to effect a change?

Without much contemplation, it seems to me that this is God’s will. If we think of ourselves as humans, we’d find that we are naturally different. The nature of things is that birds of a feather flock together. People usually form groups and connections based on common areas of likes and interests. Practically and professionally speaking, this works well with people groups in the world of work. Socially speaking, however, things can’t be the same. In the professional world, I need to group with people of the same profession in order to develop myself and grow my experience by collaborating with them. I won’t benefit much, professionally speaking, if I collaborated with people of other professions. At the social level, on the other hand, we, people, need other people who are different from us. A very simple example could be if you have a family and kids and you want to educate your kids. Certainly, you would send your kids to a school. Why do you have to do this? Because you’re not a teacher and you can’t educate them yourself. You have to go to the supermarket, the greengrocer’s, the chemist’s, the butcher’s, and so on in order to buy your needs of food and medicine. You can’t be a teacher and a butcher and a greengrocer and a pharmacist all at the same time. If this is possible, how would you imagine life on earth?

But those needs that help us stick together are only relatively important in maintaining social connections. For example, some people are vegetarians, they don’t eat meat. So, butchers can be ruled out of their life. And if you have read Robinson Crusoe or watched a production of it on TV, you can imagine how a person can survive alone on a deserted island. Yet, Robinson Crusoe did not find meaning or joy in life until he found another person, Man Friday, who could be a companion. So, it’s human feelings that help make life bearable and worthy of more than survival. It’s love that can make our life meaningful and continuously fruitful.

One can live without being in love. But certainly it won’t be a life of achievement and fulfillment. There would be no meaning, no joy, nothing much worthwhile. If you are in love, however, your life can be dramatically eventful. There would be this immensely powerful driving force that is capable of making you do miracles.

If you’re in love with someone, cherish that and know that God has bestowed a great gift on you. Know that you are destined to success and greatness. If you know someone loves you, never let go of that, because it does not happen very often that you find an honest lover. Love them back because it’s the only way you can preserve your humanity; your being a distinguished human.