Is There Not Enough Love in the World?

by Belinda Munoz on August 29, 2011

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Is Don Henley Right?

Is there not enough love in the world?

The former Eagle may have memorialized a negative response to this question through a song title, but I’m not sure I agree with the sentiment expressed by him and his fellow songwriters.

Reason to doubt #1:
We’ve learned plenty about bloodbaths, oppression and abuse of power by heads of state, and the rise and fall of empires from history courses. But if historians were to chronicle all the love, compassion or mercy involved in building and/or saving every nation and every type of civilization, I wonder what those history books would tell us?

Reason to doubt #2:
If the above reason has the weight of a goose down feather, consider this: each person who has ever lived takes roughly nine months to be born. Wouldn’t you suppose that some form of love would grow in those months?

Why, yes, there are exceptions. But those who may be tempted to categorize a completed human gestation period as simply a basic scientific function with no accompanying emotional investment, may I suggest, are likely not female nor a mother. There is an undeniable attachment, beyond the obvious physical, that builds during those months — ripening months that very often come with considerable discomfort and risk in so many countries still today. And as someone who has actively participated in extending the human life cycle, I have to cast a quizzical eye on Don’s words if I intend to contribute to the well-being of the next generation.

Reason to doubt #3:
If you, like me, have received kindness/affection/a smile — all of which are arguably signs of love — from those familiar and strange alike, then perhaps there are reasonable grounds to suspect that there could be enough love in this world? One has to wonder how much more love/kindness/compassion one would receive from those (s)he has yet to meet.

This question was inspired by a conversation with my husband. A shopkeeper in our neighborhood consistently gets vilified on Yelp for her poor customer service. Theories abound as to how this woman keeps her shop open. Husband and I both have felt her blank stares and cold words. I’ve even on one occasion walked out of her establishment in a huff.

I wonder if she has already sided with the sentiment expressed by Mr. Henley and his cohorts without doing her due diligence?

Thankfully, I have not. There is simply not enough evidence to convince me that there is not enough love in the world.

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Do you agree with Don Henley’s song title There’s Just Not Enough Love in the World?

About the shopkeeper, should I go back to her store and show some love?

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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }

1 TheKitchenWitch August 29, 2011 at 6:11 am

I’d like to think that Love trumps all. It’s a much nicer frame of mind.

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2 Celeste August 29, 2011 at 1:26 pm

I don’t know if you can convince the shopkeeper to behave differently, but if you rely on her service it might be worth a try. Would you be willing to try to know and understand her? Maybe talk with her about your experience there? Or bring her a drink next time you go in there as a love offering?

I have mixed feelings about sites such as Yelp…but I wonder if she knows it exists. Obviously some other people have been sufficiently unhappy with their experience with her to speak up about it. I guess you could take the stealth route and print out what’s on there and anonymously mail it to her. At least then you would know she’s had a chance to see the feedback and do whatever she does or doesn’t want to do with it.

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3 Belinda August 29, 2011 at 4:24 pm

Like you, Celeste, I have mixed feelings about review sites suc has Yelp. There is often so much hatred and mean-spiritedness in the way some of the less than favorable reviews are delivered which can seriously impact a businessadversely. In this modern age of everyone’s-a-connoiseur-so ya-better-listen, I try to remember that any review is subjective and a display of the personal/internal issues of the critic just as much as those of the one being criticized.

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4 ayala August 29, 2011 at 2:21 pm

There is a lot of love in the world…..enough ? we could always use more. I think love heals, I am a believer. About the shopkeeper in your neighborhood….I tend to always wonder if someone is so rude because they have a lot to carry that we don’t know about and this behavior stems from that. Some handle their troubles with grace and others do not. We never know what someone is going through. A smile does open doors and then again some people are just that way. Anyhow, I can’t see anyone being mean spirited to you, even though we never met, I always felt that you are a kind, sweet and amazing soul.

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5 Daydreamertoo August 29, 2011 at 3:12 pm

I keep reading lately a quote by Gandhi. He said: “If we all keep practising an eye for an eye, evntually the whole world will be blind.”
Yes, I think you should go back and keep emmiting only love. No-one knows the life this woman lives.She may live in constant fear either from her marriage or, from fear of customers robbing them and in some instances women in stores are gang raped robbed and, left for dead. She may always have uppermost in her mind ‘are you going to be the one who attacks us.’ And live in some type of constant fear and worry.
We just don’t know why people are the way they are but, they are a product of where they have been or, living in their own nightmares. Another wonderful spirit said: ‘If you judge others, you have no time to love’ (Mother teresa)
So, you may never know why these people are so miserable. Maybe it is their nature not to trust people. Maybe they’ve become accustomed to being on guard in case of being attacked/robbed. Maybe they just were never taught how to be friendly.
I think the western world has for the past 40 or so years raised a generation of ‘Me, me, me’ I want and I don’t care if you don’t have, I want it, and because I want it I am going to have it whether I earned it or not. (The UK riots, prime example)
We have raised a generation of children who expect things as a right and not as being earned and yes, they are being raised to think showing emotions is a bad thing.
We do need a whole lot more love in this world, the world has gone so far of course now it needs a huge wake up call and we have to do it one person at a time but, it is slowly changing. As the world speeds up, some people are waking up to the fact that love is the right way and the only way that will save us.
Gosh, I got a bit carried away but, felt I wanted to help your thoughts a little.
Be nice to the woman because, you don’t know her sadness or even her sorrow.

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6 Belinda August 29, 2011 at 4:10 pm

Hi, Daydreamer. I love both those quotes from two of the most remarkable humans who ever lived. We could all use a little more kindness, especially those among us who are least willing to give it.

I’m thrilled when commenters get carried away. I tend to do the same when I’m deeply moved, after all, what is the point of blogging if not to encourage open dialogue, to listen and be heard?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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7 Amber August 29, 2011 at 8:26 pm

I have recently changed my religious views radically. I don’t know how I feel about God. But one thing I do believe in is love. Admittedly, I have a positive view of humanity. I believe that everyone loves and has the potential to show that love in various forms. However, we all can get caught up in the daily grind and forget to share the precious L gift. Ultimately, though, I think most people will do what they can to spread good throughout the world.

This is my religion: love.

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8 Talon August 30, 2011 at 6:46 am

I think there is enough love to go around the world a few times, but I also think some are sort of love hoarders and don’t tend to share 🙂

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9 brian August 30, 2011 at 7:42 am

i think there is the potential for love greatly…but love is a choice…perhaps there is not enough people choosing to love…

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10 Fr. Michael August 30, 2011 at 4:26 pm

Haven’t stopped by in a while! Of course, I do believe there’s enough love in the world. I can feel the love from you and PC all the way here on the east coast!

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11 Rudri Bhatt Patel @ Being Rudri August 30, 2011 at 5:09 pm

“Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.” – Maya Angelou

That is my hope for the shopkeeper. My vote is to keep giving love.

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12 Sara August 31, 2011 at 8:59 am

Belinda,

Even if I stood in the worst disaster imaginable and questioned God’s wisdom, I wouldn’t question love. It’s a sprig of grass that appears in the blackness left after a devastating fire.

We have a choice about how we handle situations in which love/kindness seem a distant memory. We can shake our heads in disgust or chose to see that sprig of grass waiting to pop up.

Mind you, I’m no saint. I’m definitely not always on the right side of this choice, but I know it’s there. Just like I know there is enough love in the world and even more!

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13 Mama Zen August 31, 2011 at 9:15 am

If I thought like Don Henley, I don’t think I could get out of bed in the morning!

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14 Aileen | Kaizen Vision August 31, 2011 at 2:52 pm

Belinda I agree with your side of the question, “There is simply not enough evidence to convince me that there is not enough love in the world.”
I still find it pretty fascinating to watch in action ‘how what we think about expands’. I run experiments sometimes and I feel reality shift & change.
Unfortunately there are those how see that there isn’t enough love in the world and they create that reality for themselves. If only they knew how to challenge that belief and see what we see.

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15 Jenny Ann Fraser August 31, 2011 at 6:07 pm

Hello Belinda!
I am so very grateful that I came back here for this! What a wonderful question to ask.
I believe that there is exactly as much love in the world as we decide to create. No more, no less and if we want more, we must give more. (I know that I am preaching to the choir by saying this to you! ) I really do feel for those like your shop-keeper who don’t realize it and with-hold love out of fear. They must be in such pain…

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