Love in Action. Action in Love. Love. Out. Loud.
I can not bury my lead. We need to teach love. Love of self, of others, of us all. We need to teach love of nature, of the planet, and of the world. Most importantly, the first thing first. Love of self. From that, love of everything else becomes easier. More comfortable. More consistent.
As a coach and mentor, I often find myself educating outside of the normal boundaries for the sport or topic that is in season. Sometimes, the classroom is the playing field. Sometimes, the playing field is the classroom. Often, the home becomes the classroom, and things get taught there that serve us all well no matter where we are or what we are doing.
In a perfect world, there would be a classroom for it. There would be a curriculum for it. There would be teachers and leaders of it. There would be fundraisers, seminars, and homerooms for it. There would be homework assignments, study halls, extra credit, and work study for it. There would be teams using it as the team name, teams chanting it as they play, and accordingly, chanting it as they win. There would be team captains based on it, MVP’s awarded because of it, and there would be celebrations filled with it at seasons end.
In a perfect world, coaches would coach it, teachers would teach it, and trainers would make it stronger. Announcers would announce it, the news would broadcast it, and churches would preach it. Grocery stores would stock it up, planes would fly you to it, and cars would be blasting it over the radio as we ride.
In a perfect world, parents will ask "how will you love my child?". "how much love is in your life?", "how much love do you have to give?", "Is your love, good love?".
It would be the assembly of the year, hosted by the principal of the year, hosted at the school of the year, all because they loved more, loved louder, loved prouder, love more often, and loved out loud more than its rivals. The rivals would swear to love longer, louder, prouder, and better moving forward, because no one wants to be second in love, or last in love.
One day, a school will figure it out and offer it. Love 101, for beginners. Love AP for the high achievers, and Love College for the advanced and gifted. Of course, we would have to have Remedial Love for those who struggle with it, and tutors for those in greater need. And we would award and honor those special lovers with certificate and degrees in Loving in a higher level. We would give them letters behind their name so that the entire world would know that they are WHERE LOVE LIVES! Imagine that. Jane Doe, L.O.V.E.
I KNOW. Silly. Silly, silly, me. To think that love is important enough to be taught early, often, and completely.
I can dream.
Until then, go…
And as always,
LOVE.
