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Essays Nonfiction

Always Love. Hate Will Get You Every Time

Love serves others. The motivation of anger is almost always self-serving.

ALWAYS LOVE. Hate will get you every time. So begins the Nada Surf song of the same name (“Always Love”).

The morning after the domestic terrorism attacks in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017, this song called to me. And again, following the deadly events at our nation’s capitol last week in Washington, D.C., I found this song beckoning to me from a voice within.

“Always Love” isn’t a political song. Its message is simple enough for a child to understand. But it is adults, not children, who need to heed its message more than ever:

Always love,
Hate will get you every time;
Always love,
Even when you want to fight.

Nada Surf, “Always Love”

It’s like I tell my kids: if you’re coming from a place of anger, you need to turn back around and begin again on a new path. If the voice you hear, whether yours or someone else’s, commands anger or entices hatred and division, it is not a voice to which you should give credibility.

Love Serves Others. The Motivation of Anger Often Serves Only Oneself

The motivation of anger is almost always self-serving. The consequence of adding oxygen to the fire of anger will not bring relief to your suffering, but an advancement of it; for anger spreads like a wildfire, burning everything in its path, including that of the arsonist.

All Americans, regardless of your political convictions, need to love thy neighbor and turn away from hate and divisiveness.

When a demagogue speaks, he is not appealing to your heart; he is appealing to your prejudices and ignorance. He thinks you are ignorant and susceptible to any and all BS he can shovel your way. He is counting on that being true. Don’t let it be.

Photo by Louis Velazquez on Unsplash