There’s a theory known as the Law of Attraction which suggests that we have full control over our own lives - via our thoughts and feelings. Without going into too many details, it’s kind of like a series of self-fulfilling prophecies; every thought, feeling, and action you experience sends the message that you want more of that experience. If you think, “My life sucks!”, well… your life will probably continue to suck. It all sounds absurd at first brush, but its apparently got a fair deal of support, both from testimonies and scientific evidence. It used to be a “New Age” theory, but has become more mainstream (and was recently featured on Oprah).

One of the suggested methods for keeping your focus on things you want - and away from things you don’t - is to create a visualization and put it where you know you’ll look it. I decided to create a small example digitally (I figured that, if all else failed, I could at least become a little better with GIMP):

Don’t try to decipher it. The non-Web image is 1280×1024 and is currently my desktop background.

Regardless of your opinions on “pseudoscience” like the Law of Attraction, I like to look at it from a very open-minded perspective - if it doesn’t hurt, and it might help, why not try it out? Don’t worry, I haven’t gone off the deep end again… Last time I went there, it was far too shallow.

Edit: The image actually shows up now. I still have a lot to learn about how Wordpress handles relative links.

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“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…” - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

You don’t need to be a Christian to appreciate the significance of this passage. Judaism teaches us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Atheistic humanism teaches us that if we love other people, they are more likely to love us in return (thus making survival easier). Love is beneficial to the world as a whole.

Saddam Hussein wrote a letter to Iraqis before his death. The message? Don’t hate. “I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking,” he wrote. Ironic though it is that Hussein, of all people, would preach a message of non-hatred, he made a valid point. Unfortunately, he didn’t take it far enough.

Too many of us substitute love for “non-hate” - they aren’t the same. Imagine that you see a homeless man playing a saxophone on an urban street. (If you live in a large city, this may be an everyday occurrence.) His case lies open, holding some scattered coins and a few dollar bills. You fiddle around with the extra change in your pocket as you pass near. What’s your reaction?

A) Kick the beggar and steal his money.
B) Walk on by, avoiding eye contact with the man.
C) Stop to listen for a moment and toss in some change.
D) Give the man enough money to eat for a year, help him work on his resume and take him to an employment agency.

I hope you didn’t choose A, which would obviously be an act of hatred! The most common reactions, by far, are B and C - neutrality. Everyone feels sorry for those living in poverty, but few people actually take the time to do anything about it. The most loving choice would be D; this response is closest to what Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi or Jesus Christ would have done.

Sound impractical? You may be right; even the United States government seems to take a “non-hate” approach toward poverty. Ever try to talk a Congressman into voting to reduce his $165,200 annual salary to help the poor folks? Good luck. But look again at those verses; nowhere does it mention anything about love being easy, or about love being simple, or even about love being common! (The USA’s 40% divorce rate suggests that people don’t really follow that “love never ends” thing anymore.) The next time you tell someone that you love them, make sure you really mean it.

Unconditional love is not a feeling that comes naturally to us; it’s rare enough to have genuine love for one person, much less every person… but that’s what we should strive for. (I, for one, have a lot of work to do!)

We all have the power to love. Let’s use it.