We rarely look at the world and see it as a manifestation of love. But it is. As innocuous as the world may seem, it all has its origins in love. Even something as innocuous as a piece of metal pipe in the ground to move water or gas or something.
The metal for the pipe was mined by some miner who loved having a roof over his head and money to spend, so he took the mining job. He might even say he hates the job. But try to take it away and watch him fight to keep it.
The guy who shipped the metal loves having no boss looking over his shoulders and he loves having a lot of time to think. So even though he might verbally bitch about it all day, he works on the ship shipping the iron ore because he loves that more than any other job.
The guy who smelts the ore into the steel and the guy who shape it into pipe are both at their jobs because they love their kids. They’re both immigrants who left a beloved home and family and friends in the hopes that their children can have a better life.
They go to work each day motivated by love for their kids; grateful to be able to not only secure their kid’s future, but also to send money back home to take the pressure off of other loved ones too.
Maybe the pipe was put in the ground by a backhoe driver who’s loved heavy machinery since she was a little kid. It was Tonka toys all the way and she loves commanding that powerful robot arm.
Love love love. Every car we pass started as a drawing, lovingly attended to by someone who genuinely cared that the final product added beauty into this world.
No matter how bad it might have turned out, every single painting we’ve ever seen was approached with the hope that the result would be something people would love.
A store owner hopes we’ll love their shop and patronize it. Teachers want the kids to love the class. Lawyers love the law, or money, or winning. But it’s all still love. Even when we fall short, we are always generally aiming for love or value.
Today I get my first vaccine shot for COVID-19. I’m getting the AstraZeneca and as a science lover I’m very happy about getting any of the vaccines. I also know that my shot is the result of a long line of love.
First, there were all the kids who loved pursuing their own curiosity more than any other thing, and so some of them became scientists throughout the ages. Many of those scientists passionately dedicated themselves to research they did that later contributed to other discoveries that have compounded their way into being modern medicine.
And modern medicine is governed and overseen by various bodies and agencies that attract people who love protecting others. Maybe someone they admired protected people and they’re mimicking. Or maybe someone they cared about got hurt and they want to protect others. But they too are there out of a quiet passion that saw them stick there and not elsewhere.
Whatever their motivations were, if they ended up in medicine they love saving lives or doing science or getting paid. So today, when they push the plunger in on my vaccine, I’m going to really think about the fact that they are injecting me with a couple of hundred years worth of that love and passion.
After my shot I will enjoy a huge dose of gratitude for the millions of people that were required to research, create, manufacture, ship, distribute and provide the largest exercise in caring and sharing the world has ever seen. We are collectively in the midst of caring for eight billion individual humans. It’s a remarkable thing to be alive for.
I’m not sure why humans have such a low opinion of themselves so often when so much of our society is dedicated to nothing but creations or acts of beauty, kindness and/or compassion, like this worldwide vaccine rollout.
The evidence for humans caring versus not caring is extremely good. That being the case, I see no reason to change my view that there is something to like about absolutely everyone. The only question is will I have the patience to find it?
peace. s
A serious childhood brain injury lead Scott to spend his entire life meditating on the concepts of thought, consciousness, reality and identity. It made others as strange to him as he was to them. When he realized people were confused by their own over-thinking, Scott began teaching others to understand reality. He is currently CBC Radio Active’s Wellness Columnist, as well as a writer, speaker and mindfulness instructor based in Edmonton, AB where he still finds it strange to write about himself in the third person.