Why this election is really about one thing: LOVE.
At the core of every human being is the need for one thing: love. We want to be loved, and we want to give love (well, most of us). But in order to love someone, and to be loved by someone — there is a base level of understanding that must be present for that to happen. We don’t love things we don’t understand. No — we fear the things we don’t understand.
True love & fear cannot coexist.
I don’t know who’s going to win this election. But frankly, either way, it will be hard to shake this feeling of sadness & disappointment I have today.
It’s hard knowing that there are so many people, many of whom I interact with often, who don’t understand my experience — or the experience of LGBTQ, people of color, or women. And not only do they not understand, they don’t care enough to understand. And if they don’t care enough to understand my experience, then I hope you can see why I feel like those same people also do not love me. They may think they love me, but no. At the deepest level, they really don’t.
They love comfort, security, and the familiar. I understand this desire. It feels safe! It actually kind of feels like love. But unfortunately, that’s not love. Because at its core — is fear. Fear of the unknown, of the uncertainty, of the scarcity. When you choose fear, you are actively choosing the opposite of love.
Why are you afraid of me? Of us? We just want what everyone else already has: to be equal; to be safe; to be seen; to be heard; to be validated; to be understood; to be loved. Why does that make you afraid? Or angry? Why don’t you think we deserve the same things you have had your entire life? And are you worried that if GET those things that you somehow might LOSE them? That fear is irrational. Because if we all get these things, we all end up finding & feeling loved — and then we just have more love to give to one another.
People say the left, or “libtards”, are a bunch of snowflakes. Softies. Babies. Losers. If wanting the world to be filled with kindness, safety, generosity, equality and LOVE makes me a snowflake — then so be it. I am ok with that title. It doesn’t hurt my feelings because I know it is right. Choosing love will always be the right thing.
So why is today hard for me and so many others? Because 67 million people have refused to take a breath, put their egos aside, stop listening to rhetoric & propaganda, and ask themselves — what am I really trying to accomplish here? What am I afraid of? Why am I actively not choosing the loving thing?
What we don’t want to admit is that love is expensive. It requires a lot of us. It requires work, discomfort, and compromise. It requires uncertainty, and faith, and it offers no control. For some of us, it even requires money. And above all — it requires us to look in the mirror and be honest with ourselves about who we really are. Our biggest fear is that we, ourselves, and not worthy of love. And if we’re not worthy of love, then one must make the conclusion that no one else deserves love either. So what I see when I look at the 67 million people who chose fear over love — is sadness. Brokenness. And ironically — wait for it — a need for love.
You don’t have to choose fear. You don’t have to withhold love because you don’t feel it yourself. In fact, I am certain that if you offer love to others, you’ll start to feel it within yourself. It’s counter-intuitive, but it’s true.
And so — to the 67 million people (and probably more) who are choosing fear — I want you to know that while I am angry, and disappointed, and heartbroken about your choice — I’m going to do the hard thing and try to understand & love you anyway. My hope is that by feeling loved, you can begin to love yourself — and stop being so damn afraid.
Love > Fear. ❤❤❤
P.
