“We Must Love One Another, Or Die”

“`We must love one another or die,’ wrote W.H. Auden in his poem, September 1, 1939. The name of his poem, pointedly, is the date of the Nazi invasion of Poland. His line was an exhortation to summon the better angels of our nature even as the darkness descends.”

I got that paragraph this morning in my email and was inspired.

Every morning, I ask myself why I’m getting up. What is the purpose? And it has to be selfish.

There is nothing wrong with selfishness. Selfishness can save the world…as long as our sense of “self” extends beyond our own skin.

The first thing I check every morning is my heartbeat. Then my breath. They connect me to my survival. But…I can feel the hearts of others out there, and can feel the fear and uncertainty.

The person we are, or seek to be, must align with our words and actions. It is folly to think we can be otherwise, that our being, our nature, is something separate from those actions and words. Abusers ask us to listen to their words, and not pay attention to their actions. Fools think that people can speak evil and do good. Perhaps. While you are watching. But what people spontaneously express is closest to their true natures.

At the very least, you are dealing with someone torn into pieces, trying to ride two horses at once.

It doesn’t work. We must speak, and feel, and DO all in the same direction, with the same underlying values and intent, to be our best selves…