Curious, curious

What was it people were saying about overpopulation again?

They could be on to something

The hippies, I mean. The people who wear shirts that say "Hugs, Not Drugs." Those sorts of people. And...well, I'm having the usual writer's block that comes when I try to start a post.
It's interesting that we're so hung up on world peace. It kind of surprises me, come to think of it, because we should be pushing for something much more important. We should be pushing for world love. I know that sounds unbelievably mushy, gushy, cuddly and candy-coated. Not to mention weird. But, as you knew I was going to say, it's not.
About a week or two ago, I was watching a recording of a lecture by a psychologist/psychiatrist--whatever the difference is--named Leo Buscaglia. He made an interesting point about American and British culture. We're afraid to show affection here. You can't just meet a friend on the street and give them a bear hug. You can do that in Italy. According to Buscaglia, you're almost required to do that in Italy. Hugging, kissing, all that stuff is standard procedure there, but it's frowned upon here. Partially because everything here has to have a sexual connotation stapled onto it. A grandpa can't kiss his granddaughter; he's a pedophile. A guy couldn't hug his best friend; he's homosexual. A guy certainly can't hug a girl who happens to be his friend; he's harassing her.
Why can't we take sex out of the equation? Why can't we tear down (or at least chip away at) the little walls we always build up around ourselves? Why can't we love?
'Cuz it's scary!!
For one thing, it means we have to open ourselves up to other people, something waaaay out of our comfort zone. We have to accept people's faults and problems (not to be confused with allowing these faults to seriously damage them, i.e. alcohol addiction), and admit that we have some of our own. Most of all, we have to work. We have to drop our personal agendas and be more concerned with the good of the other.
If the entire world could learn to do that, and not just individual people, but nations, corporations and communites as well, then there will be peace. Love brings peace. What a scary concept.
Yeah, love is scary. So are roller coasters. The Hammer, a popular carnival ride, comes to my mind. For those who don't know, the Hammer is a ride in which you sit in a closed-off little...cage, for lack of a better word, and are then spun around vertically in a circle. Rather fast. And it's not always a motor doing the spinning; gravity will kick in, too, often causing you to hover momentarily in space at the top of the circle, then come careening back down and around again. I know that's a terrible description, but basically, the Hammer is a scary ride, at least to me. And I had never gone on it until a few months ago; being too skeered. But that time back in May, I got on it without thinking carefully beforehand. I was sitting in the little cage, wondering how I could have been so stupid, and then it started.
Wow, it was fun. Several times my stomach felt like it was going to evaporate, and apparently my screaming (I'd really prefer to say "howling." It sounds slightly more masculine) could be heard over much of the fairgrounds. But I was very glad I had done it, in the end.
I guess that's kind of what love's like. Kinda.
It's scary for most of us to contemplate, especially in this country where our job can take higher importance than our children, but if we summon up the guts and try it, it will be ultimately rewarding for everyone involved. Granted, our stomachs will feel like they're about to evaporate at times; the sacrifices we may be called upon to make will seem like a lot. But still, in the end, we'll be glad we did it. We'll be glad we loved ourselves (sought what was best for us rather than what we wanted), loved others (sought what was best for them rather than what we wanted them to want) and, most importantly, loved God (sought what He wanted from us rather than what we wanted Him to want from us).
But you know what the big clincher is? Most people think they know this stuff already, myself included. But we can all be amazingly hypocritical about it, in our various ways. "Of course," we say, "of course love's a great thing. I just don't have time for it right now."
Make time, pumpkin! Don't say. Do! Don't rationalize (not to be confused with actually trying to figure out what's best). Do!
Do! Do! Do! Do!