On Kinney Road

June 14, 2009 – On the Farm Journal, I’ve written about fear, loss, hay, dogs, cows, storms and the passages of life. Why not take on love for a few days?
  A lot has been written about love, and by some great writers – Shakespeare, Steinbeck, Tolstoy,
Marquez. It would take a lot of nerve for me to take it up. So I have to, of course.
  Love has been explored, explained and represented so often it has almost lost its meaning and power. Many movies, books and other forms of expression take it up. But you don’t get it until you feel it. Then it changes the world, from inside out, and dwarfs many of the worlds occupying and mundane concerns. I believe big subjects ought to be explored in small ways. It makes them more comprehensible, at least to me.
  If you are experiencing it, the world is a good place. It feels good, and is infectious, righteous, spreading like a particle in physics out to the rest of our lives and to the people we touch. The Taoists say that when people love each other consciously, their energies are consecrated to the good of humanity, and they will inspire others. I understand that idea.
   Love shatters self-absorption. You can’t feel it without subsuming some of yourself. It challenges us to be worthy, deserving of being loved, so it improves us. It fills empty and hollow spaces with goodness. It alters time and space, in that it doesn’t matter much where you are or what you’re doing, it’s sweet to be doing it. Love gives you something to look forward to every day, and pulls you up. It reduces most of the news to ashes. It does not make the world perfect, but it seeds life with perfect moments.
 Every moment, you have something to look forward to.
 It  feels good, and that feeling is evident to others, and without question. It brings the sometimes cold idea of joy to life. I suppose a lot of people want love, but one has to work to be open to it.
  The world challenges us to live, work and believe that things like markets and money and ideologies are what matters. Love overwhelms these small and petty ideas, and flushes them away.