Earth Dance — All 4 Love and Love 4 All
As this issue of Letters hits the newsstands around the city, the Convention Center will be buzzing with the work of many volunteers, stagehands, lighting/sound designers, and a hard working décor team that I hold near and dear to my heart. The effort that goes into creating the Love benefit (and Sundance on Labor Day weekend) is enormous, and indeed a labor of love for many.
Love—we use that word a lot, don’t we? There’s romantic love, the big “I love you,” the love of friends and family, and the countless way we love every little thing from chocolate to bar-b-que (as in umm, I’d love some of that bar-b-que chicken!).
But there’s another love, a greater love that calls us to be the best we can be as human beings. It’s the kind of love that gives beyond all measure, beyond all expectation. It’s holy love, deep love, love given for no reason, for no profit and no gain. Its love that expects nothing in return—the kind that cannot be stopped and yet often goes completely unnoticed by the busy world around us. It’s the kind of love that changes lives and transforms the world in which we live.
There are so many people in our community who quietly go about the work of changing the world, one good deed at a time. Sometimes it’s only a quick word of support or a note that brings comfort; sometimes it’s the sacrifice of dreams, goals, and personal needs for the sake of someone else.
Remember the movie, Love Story, and its famous line, “love means never having to say you’re sorry?” I’ve thought about that line a lot over the years since I saw the film back in 1970. It sounds good, but sometimes love means being the first to say I’m sorry, the first to forgive a wrong, the first to let go of power, of control, of anger and frustration.
Big love goes hand in hand with forgiveness, with kindness, with compassion, with gentleness. It’s at odds with the fast paced, money centered culture that is modern day America, and yet, deep in our hearts it is exactly who we are as human beings and why we are so quick to give of ourselves when the need arises.
We’ve all been horrified, of late, by the terrible scenes of oil spewing out of the sea floor in the Gulf of Mexico. What does oil have to do with love? Nothing really, I suppose, but I can’t seem to stop thinking of that gushing plume of oil as a terrible wound, not just to the earth itself, but as a representation of the deep suffering that goes on in the world everyday.
I grew up in Alabama and as a child when we went to the beach it was to the Gulf of Mexico. Looking at the pure white sands of Pensacola covered in waves of oil, my soul is pained, and I’m touched by its symbolism of tainted purity.
Somehow we’ve got to find the love it takes to change our attitudes about ourselves, about our environment, about the way we use our resources and find our energy—about the way we make decisions, and the way we relate to one another, human to human.
A long time ago I wrote this piece that somehow seems fitting in light of the current state of the world’s environment.
O Earth,
in our ignorance and greed
and insatiable desire
to control and tame
What have we done to you?
to your forests
to your rivers and lakes
to the very dirt that
robes your molten heart
What have we done to you?
O Earth,
in careless disgrace we dump
our sludge and befoul your sweet air
leaving our dirty footprints
on all that is sacred and
precious within your sphere
O Earth,
What have we done to you?
what consequences will
our children suffer for our
arrogance and disdain
for all that is good
and beautiful
what air will fill and distort their lungs
what water will poison their bodies
and those of all living things
O Earth,
What have we done to you?
O Earth,
What have we done to ourselves?
On the one hand it seems I’m talking about love; on the other, about the environment. I don’t think I’m talking about two different things at all.
Loving one another is about loving the earth, about loving peace, about loving so much we put an end to discrimination and poverty and war and disease.
This July 4th lets dance for all—for life, for love and for the good of the earth.
Murray Archibald, Founder and President of the Board of Directors of CAMP Rehoboth, is an artist in Rehoboth Beach.