The older I get the more I realize the importance of love. What is life without love? Sex may be fun with multiple partners, but sex is the best when it is with someone we love.

I have been thinking a lot recently about love. Not just romantic love, but love in general. So much of our world seems so harsh and brutal: broken families, broken communities, broken countries. So much of it can be traced back to a lack of love among people. A family is broken when a spouse strays, when the need for selfish satisfaction conquers the need for selfless giving. A community is broken when the members no longer have a sense of responsibility towards each other, and everyone acts merely in their own self interest, or at least they do so to an extreme. A country is broken when violence and power seeking become the norm for human interactions. Of course I know this all simplistic; yet one of the things I have seen over and over again in these situations of brokenness is a lack of true empathy, care and concern for others, and even love. Perhaps this is human nature, most likely it is, but we are not fatalistically bound to our baser instincts. It is good to be aware of them, but we need not be slaves to them.

The Good Samaritan: don't expect this from Wall Street; rather, they will kick you when you are down and take as much of your money as they can.

Ferdinand Bardamu has good piece today on many of the ills in our country. http://www.inmalafide.com/2011/01/19/the-rise-of-generation-zero-part-1-everything-you-know-is-wrong/ To my perspective, the financial mess in this country was caused for the most part by people’s greed and lack of concern for their actions and the consequences that would bring to our society. Rather, the ethos seemed to be to get as much as one could, and the hell with the rest. The Wall Street crowd created a system where they could benefit as much as possible at the expense of everyone else. Our government seemed to be their enablers. “Too big to fail” became the mantra. “Too big to fail” ? What, would the sun not rise the next day if a big company on Wall Street failed? Who knows. All I know if  people acted that way and got away with it once, they will do it again. When white collar criminals know the government will protect them, they will do the same thing time and time again. And it seems increasingly that our government is owned and controlled by gigantic corporations and Wall Street businesses. These are not institutions that care for people; they only care about making money for themselves.  Our shrinking middle class is a testament to that.  Perhaps we need a new Teddy Roosevelt?

Teddy Roosevelt: He recognized the dangers that large corporations posed to the integrity of our government.

Well enough of this…I am straying into areas I know little about. It is just what I see with the financial crisis of the last few years was a crisis brought about by a lack concern for others. In a certain sense, a lack of love. People’s lives have been damages by the greed and selfishness of others.

Of course we can only really practice love on a small level, with a few people we may know. But that does not mean we cannot keep the well being and welfare of those we are not close to, or those we don’t know at all, outside of our thoughts. We need to start thinking more of our families, our communities, the things we love. Perhaps if we do, things might improve in our world. Perhaps there will be a little less greed and bad behavior.

But back to love, and one of my favorite things, romantic love…but I will have to save that for another post.