When I woke last Thursday, I was both overjoyed and heartbroken. June 27th is Naeem’s birthday which for me is a Federal Holiday – a day deserving of coast to coast pomp and circumstance.
As such, I packed a bag, gassed up my vehicle, and began the six-hour drive to Pittsburgh for an extended weekend celebration with my National treasure. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that knowing I would soon see my son was the thing causing me to be overjoyed.
Why was I sad? Because on the other side of overjoy is heartbreak.
Yin and Yang
Arising on Thursday morning, one image ascended to the top of my mind. Not the vision of Naeem gleefully greeting me when I arrived but the photo of the migrant father and daughter drowning. It didn’t seem fair that while I was preparing to spend the day with my child, a father and daughter were dead — another unnecessary terminal example of the Universe’s yin and yang.
The Universe provided me with the good fortune of being able to take off to celebrate the best day in the history of the world with Naeem while another father suffered a horrible fate. Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, who took off with his daughter, Angie Valeria, for a chance at a better life, has no more days. I was overjoyed for another day to express my deep regard for Naeem and simultaneously heartbroken because humanity had again shown itself devoid of love.
Love’s in Need of Love Today
For the entire drive to Pittsburgh, I listened to only one song – Love’s In Need Of Love Today. That’s over fifty times if you are counting.
Love’s In Need of Love Today is the first song on Stevie Wonder’s 1976 iconic album “Songs in the Key of Life.” Although Mr. Wonder was singing about love in 1974, his words precisely described love in 2019.
Love’s in need of love today
Don’t delay
Send yours in right away
Hate’s goin’ round
Breaking many hearts
Stop it, please
Before it’s gone too far
The photo of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and Angie Valeria haunt me still and confirm that without question love’s in need of love today. Unfortunately, a drowning migrant father and child are merely another in the long line of examples of our complacency towards love and misunderstanding of the word “love.”
I have little doubt that in the coming days if not hours, other lives will cease, more families will mourn, countless hearts will break – while you and I unless the loss is personal or occurs at a time that is convenient for us – will do little more than offer our thoughts and prayers. Mr. Wonder was prophetic, a world devoid of love has gone too far.
A Verb Not a Noun
I think this nation needs a Cardiothoracic Surgeon and a Grammar teacher. While I’m not qualified to diagnose, treat, or operate on the heart, I can define love.
Love is a verb, not a noun. Nouns are reference words. Verbs are action words. Unless the love you claim is over, unless the person you profess to love is no more, action must always accompany the word “love.” When it comes to love, the word “love” and the behaviors expressing “love” are like peanut butter and jelly, peas and carrots, Naeem and me – forever inextricably linked.
Mr. Wonder notes that we must take precautionary measures if love and peace you treasure. Thus, love is a process; it’s a series of never-ending selfless steps. Love is the noble doing of something; it abides by the Immutable Law of Reciprocity; it’s there without excuse or limitation; it appears without condition or exception.
Love typically seeks to achieve an aim such as making sure each day at a minimum you help, serve and make sure those you profess to love know that they matter. Paraphrasing Mr. Wonder, love is urgent; it doesn’t count on later – “Don’t delay. Send yours in right away.”
Breaking Many Hearts
Last Thursday, I cried the entire drive. I shed some tears of joy because I received another day to love my son. I wept because parents like Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez would never have another day to love their child. Then I cried twice as much because I fear that when it comes to love in 2019, desensitivity and complacency have replaced Mr. Wonder’s concern about the power of hatred.
Today, we break hearts directly or indirectly because we are complacent and desensitized beings. Whether it’s the treatment of migrants, the Charleston Church Shooting, the Flint Water Crisis, Orlando’s nightclub shooting, Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, The Tree of Life massacre, or the more than half a million people who are homeless every night in America, the desensitized and complacent concern we have about humanity is palpable.
Final Questions
Look at the drowning bodies in the water. Can you see what I see? A reflection of ourselves. People who mostly love only ourselves. People who when we love others, routinely express it at our convenience.
Mr. Wonder asks only one question in Love’s In Need of Love Today – “Did you ever think that love would be in need of love today?” I’d like you to ask and answer. Did you ever think that love would be in need of love today?
Did you ever think you would see a parent and child – both sharing hopes and dreams like you and me – lying dead in the water and find yourself too complacent and desensitized to do anything to give love to the world? Did you ever think that someone you “love” might be in need of love today?
Do your words of love match your deeds of love? Is your love reciprocal or inequitable? Is your love sent right away, or is it delayed?