Tonight, up too late and feeling strange, I had devoured all of the articles in my Google Reader feeds and most of my Chicken in a Biskit crackers and found myself casting about for something to read in cyberspace. On a whim, I googled the word “love”.
Happily, the results that were returned were not all about online dating services. One was a link to a website called wikiHow, a repository of advice on how to do things. The article was entitled “How To Love“. I read it with interest and was arrested by the following sentence:
Love is the continual act of unconditionally putting the needs of others before your own.
This is likely the best definition of the word I have ever seen. I’m tempted to go on a rant about how, by this definition, nobody in the family I was raised in loves me. Not my mother or father or brother or sister. But, that’s not the direction I want to focus my thoughts in, true though it sadly is.
No, the thing that moved me to tears earlier tonight (and yes, I’m a little emotional tonight, I admit that) was the “I Love the Whole World” video that was, of all things, a commercial for Discovery Channel. I had read the latest XKCD comic and it moved me to watch and re-watch the little video and the next thing I knew, I had tears streaming down my face as I felt this amazing love for life, the universe and everything, all of you out there in cyberspace, and I just had to write something about it.
If I couldn’t love, I couldn’t live. It’s gotten me through the end of my life and the end of my brother’s life. Love is beyond powerful, it’s staggering. It’s all I can feel right now. It’s all I want to feel.
More From Ryan Sutter
- How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog
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- i love cargo pants
- just woke up
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