the moon's song

The Moon's Song by Olivia Fern.

  

After I learned about it thanks to my friend Joy and listened to it, it was destined to be the discovery of the year.

The year was 2019 and it would have received the honor, if not for The Mastery of Love.

So it had to own 2020 instead.

And the truth is that this song accompanied me many times throughout the year and I don't think that it would have been any different even if we did not have a virus to worry about.

The sound is one thing (don't get me wrong, the guitar play and the singing work together to create a mellow and joyous).

The lyrics are another. I find myself totally enthralled EVERY TIME the last lines came on. They represent the voice of the moon to whom one has come to ask for guidance, and they go deep.

And she sang "Child, be unafraid to shine. Be bold and bright, reflecting the light."

She sang "Child, be unafraid to shine. Be bold and bright, reflecting the light." 

Be unafraid to shine

Be unafraid to shine

Be unafraid to shine

Be unafraid to shine

And listening to the following version of the song featuring Ayla Nereo on vocals and Green T. on percussion is nothing but pure bliss.

Timeless.

celebrating mbira

The mbira made it to the Google Doodle stage yesterday!

The feature was made to commemorate Zimbabwe Culture Week and it's just awesome news that this wonderful instrument got this level of attention.

Click on the image below to check out the Google Doodle, and to learn about — and even play — the mbira.

I became charmed after discovering the soft, melodic, and hypnotic sounds of the mbira during a world music introduction class in college.

Twenty something years later, I learning to play the instrument to remain charmed.

the mastery of love

Hands down one of the discoveries of the year, if it is not THE discovery ...

It's all in the title, of this book by Don Miguel Ruiz.

My favorite quotes are several in number, and they include the following two:

Love in action can only produce happiness. Fear in action can only produce suffering.

The whole world can love you, but that love will not make you happy. What will make you happy is the love coming out of you.

la lune

All I wanted was to take my inner artist out on a date. An opportunity to take the next morning off came up at the last minute, and I took it. It was decided: we were going to the exhibition LA LUNE : Du voyage réel aux voyages imaginaires (literally "THE MOON") at the Grand Palais in Paris. I really wanted to see this exhibition even though I did not really know what to expect. Maybe it was the words in the title that evoked beautiful things for me : lune (moon), voyage (journey), imaginaire (imaginary). Maybe it was the blue in the promotional poster (yes, blue is my favorite color). Whatever it was, I was not going to pass up the occasion to check out this exhibition, which would end in four days.

This decision-making happened yesterday, and the exhibition ends on Monday.

So I showed up at Grand Palais this morning. Just moments after entering the exhibition space, I discovered something when I read the first text display. It was the 50th anniversary of the first walk on the moon!

Indeed, that historic event took place on July 21, 1969 and today is only July 19, 2019. But still!

Recognizing the total coincidence of my visit, I went on to celebrate history and appreciate some moon love in the exhibition.

love your dragon

I don't know much about How To Train Your Dragon or Game of Thrones, but I have taken a liking to dragons as they are described in the film Finding Joe.

In this documentary, the dragon is used as a metaphor for those things that scare you. Sharing your truth with your parents or initiating a conversation with a stranger are two of my current favorites. For some people, perhaps it's about speaking before a large audience. For others, it may be the idea of dancing at a party whereas everyone else is sitting down. I do not think that scary things are necessarily problems, unless we spend a lot of time thinking about them and yet avoiding them in the end.

Perhaps giving lots of attention to the dragon ‒ via thought and avoidance ‒ is a sign that we should face it?

Gay Hendricks, a psychologist featured in Finding Joe, thought similarly. He suggested that by facing the dragon, or more appropriately 'your' dragon, you would develop a larger sense of yourself. Yet he thought that loving your dragon was a more efficient approach. Possibly because, like we all know, love is something positive and powerful.

Rather than facing our fears, let us love our dragons. In doing so, we become able to love ourselves more.

flow

While browsing through magazines in the WHSmith bookstore in Paris ‒ for images that would make up an autobiographic collage ‒, I came across the one below.

I did not realize it at the time, because all I cared about was what was potentially inside the magazine ‒ images that evoked things that I cherished. Things like adventure, drawing, nature, travel, well-being, and the rest. But as I later found out, the cover itself summed up those more abstract themes that I cherished even more, in the same one line that appears at the top of every issue.

CELEBRATING CREATIVITY, IMPERFECTION AND LIFE'S LITTLE PLEASURES

I was in heaven.

It was only even later that I discovered that the title of the magazine bore the name of one of my favorite books of all-time.

The really funny thing is that the "flow" book ‒ in its presentation of an approach to achieving happiness by transforming life into a unified set of optimal experiences ‒ encourages the celebration of creativity, imperfection, and life's little pleasures.

Could it be a coincidence that both magazine and book are called "flow"?

I would like to think not.

P. S. The magazine did not disappoint ‒ it was chock-full of wonderful images. What I did not expect was that it had many other interesting things to look at, to read, to play with.

fabulous

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world.

‒ Marianne Williamson

Several years ago, I stumbled upon an article by Steve Pavlina that had this to say:

A friend of mine, who seems pretty happy in his current career, calls this "embracing your own fabulousness." He said that people who are unhappy fail to recognize and embrace how fabulous they are, so they can’t express or share their fabulousness with others. I completely agree.

It's a lovely concept that I also find in expressions such as "loving yourself", "unique ability", "do more of what makes you awesome", and the like. And I think that they are all good.

But there's just something about "embracing your own fabulousness" that hits the spot.

Even better, the word "fabulous" itself.

I'll take that.


fabulous [ fa-byə-ləs ] adj.

♦ COMMON. Implausible albeit real. ⇒ astonishing, extraordinary, fantastic, unbelievable, prodigious
♦ (EMPHATIC) Enormous. ⇒ astronomical, colossal, exorbitant
♦ INFORMAL. Uncommon. ⇒ exceptional

exposure to annihilation

Fear.

It was what I often felt before running an operation in public.  No matter how many times I had been through the very same operation in the past, under the very same conditions, those feelings of fear were always present and strong, instead of absent or at least weaker, as I had expected them to become over time.  Then, one day, I stumbled upon the following words:

Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.

At that instant, I was in love.  In love with these words.  I believed that they spoke the truth, albeit in a rather poetic manner.  After all, they expressed what I had experienced over and over again ‒ the fear of being exposed when I was about to launch an operation and the fear of getting annihilated afterwards, metaphorically speaking.  Yet in the end, it was quite the opposite, because I usually felt empowered as a result of my actions. Sometimes, the feeling went beyond empowerment ‒ it bordered on invincibility.  But only for a moment, naturally.

I had long attributed the words to Pema Chödrön, who wrote them in her book, "When Things Fall Apart".  It was only a few weeks ago that I learned that she may have been quoting Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, who had included the words in his book "The Way of Transformation".  So I went looking for the source and discovered the passage below.  Nothing but love.

The man, who, being really on the Way, falls upon hard times in the world will not, as a consequence, turn to that friend who offers him refuge and comfort and encourages his old self to survive. Rather, he will seek out someone who will faithfully and inexorably help him to risk himself, so that he may endure the suffering and pass courageously through it, thus making of it a 'raft that leads to the far shore.' Only to the extent that man exposes himself over and over again to annihilation, can that which is indestructible arise within him. In this lies the dignity of daring.

becoming the linchpin

On my second and recent read of the book "Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?" by Seth Godin, a fear crept up within me.  "Would I spend the next seven months reading and re-reading this book like I did with Flow, analyzing the chapters one by one, highlighting passages with my yellow marker, typing entire sections of the book on my computer, making drawings of the concepts presented?"  The book was just that good, that relevant, and I could not put it down.

 

I am no publishing expert, so I will simply copy what the back cover of the book says:

In bestsellers such as Purple Cow and Tribes, Seth Godin taught readers how to make remarkable products and spread powerful ideas. But this book is about you—your choices, your future, and your potential to make a huge difference in whatever field you choose.

There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there's a third team, the linchpins. These people figure out what to do when there's no rule book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.

Linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organizations. They may not be famous but they're indispensable. And in today's world, they get the best jobs and the most freedom.

As Godin writes, "Every day I meet people who have so much to give but have been bullied enough or frightened enough to hold it back. It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. You have brilliance in you, your contribution is essential, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must."

One may claim that the book says nothing new, but Seth writes with an edge that I find so rare and insightful that I would debate that claim.  Needless to say, he is a linchpin himself, and he is indispensable.  His book is nothing short of art and is a gift of his to us.  Naturally, like he points out, there is no manual for becoming a linchpin.  Each of us must draw his or her own map.  Besides, isn't that where all the fun is?

The Linchpin poster

security and risk

Recently, I discovered a strange relationship between risk and security.  And to thank for that, I have no one but Paul Arden, who states in his book "Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite", that risk is your security in life.  Usually, we would think that security was a prerequisite for risk.  We would expect people who have a lot of money to be able to purchase expensive products and services without worry and those who have little to keep their expenses low.  In the workplace, we would expect people with a lot of expertise in a given domain to be able to make the risky decisions in times of uncertainty and those that with little experience in the same domain to follow the instructions.  But given the title of his book, Paul Arden challenges us to consider the opposite, asserting that it is risk that fuels security.

I am fascinated by this link between risk and security because for several years I have been working with the concept of security.  And to be clear, I am not talking about financial security.  I am talking rather about a deeper kind of security.  The kind of security that is more universal than money.  The kind of security that is even capable of influencing decisions related to financial security.  The kind of security that, in my opinion, affects each person, rich or poor, throughout the course of his or her life, from childhood to old age.  I am talking about emotional security, and especially the lack of it.

As a human being living in society, each of us has or has had emotional insecurities.  Each of us has known something about himself (or herself) that, if exposed, would cause him (or her) to have unpleasant feelings like those of being rejected, mocked, ignored, or weakened.  Who longs for those feelings?  Who appreciates them when they are experienced?

One of my greatest emotional insecurities arises when I wish to do something that comes from a deeply personal place but that is noticeably different from what most people around me are doing, especially if they are doing more or less the usual things.  Something like roaming the streets of Paris on a Saturday to ask one of 50 people in English if they came from a capital of one of the 50 American States, which, I admit, is not usual.  Or something like going to each desk in a small open space shared with 15 colleagues between 4pm and 5pm on a randomly chosen day each week to say hello and make brief small talk if possible, while these colleagues are all working on their computers.  Or even something like using a public albeit virtual space like Facebook to share a personally written post on emotional insecurity whereas many other Facebook users are sharing photos from their travels or from their everyday life, posts about events that happened, or articles written by other people.  Whatever the context may be, my emotional security is in question when I become aware of an opportunity to carry out one of my cherished wishes.  Sometimes, I seize the opportunity and reap the rewards of satisfaction that logically follow.  At other times, I seize nothing, and all I can do afterwards is feel the pain of defeat.  Call it a struggle if you will.

Four years ago, I heard a wise man say that you could get rid of your insecurities by featuring them, and I believed him.  This is probably for this reason that I conceive schemes that I call 'operations' to nurture my wishes of demonstrating my particular tendencies in public, with the hopes of gaining security in the process or, better yet, of overcoming my insecurity of wanting to do things differently.

So far so good, taking the risk seems to be paying off.  While I still have moments where I am emotionally insecure, I have discovered that I am less troubled than before by events that occur as a result of other people's actions (or lack thereof).  Consequently, I have been able to feel more in control of my emotions.

How beautiful it is to do without the expectation that others recognize you, pay attention to you, or approve of what you do.

How beautiful it is to feel liberated from the need to criticize others for being more normal than you, in terms of ideas and opinions.

How beautiful it is to ignore the temptation to hold grudges or to breed jealousy towards people who seem to be doing everything right.

How beautiful it is to take interest in the lives of people that you know and that you meet without faulting them when they do not reciprocate the gesture.

How beautiful it is to have something that solicits your attention more than everyday nuisances and that depends primarily on your efforts.

How beautiful it is to experience something so special that you can think of only one word to capture it: fulfillment.

If this is what security is really about, then I want more, more until it is second nature.  So, taking inspiration from the words of Paul Arden, I must remain willing to take the risk of carrying out my personal and unusual ideas in public.


Risks are a measure of people.  People who won't take them are trying to preserve what they have.  People who do take them often end up having more.

‒ Paul Arden

fun factor

Life is not a competition, it's a game. It's not about winning or losing, it's about all the fun you can have before it ends.

‒ Simon Sinek

Sometimes, and even often, I need to remind myself that this is meant to be fun, that this works best when it is fun.  Or at least enjoyable.  Well thank goodness for Alan Cohen, one of several people interviewed in the film "Finding Joe".  Alan's explanation of the metaphor of the Golden Buddha story is an excellent reminder of the fun factor to consider in this thing called life.



Below is a homemade transcript of the Alan's explanation of the metaphor.

Each of us is golden by nature.  We were born golden, we were born high, we were born knowing, we were born connected to our bliss, we were born knowing truth, we were born knowing everything that every great spiritual master ever said, we were one with the Christ, the Buddha, everyone.  But then, we went to school and they said you have to dress like this, and this is what boys do, and this is what girls do, this is what black people do, this is what white people do, on and on and on.  And so we developed a casing of stone over the buddha to a point where at a young age, maybe 4 or 5 or 6 or 7, we believed that we were the stone buddha and not the golden one.  And then, something comes along that cracks our casing.  Maybe it's an injury, a divorce, a financial setback, a governmental change, something that really scares us and bugs us and knocks off a piece of our armor and only in that moment of the armor being knocked off do you get to look inside and see the gold.  And let me tell you friend, that the moment you see that gold, the armor and the concrete will never satisfy you again.  At that point, you truly enter the true hero's adventure and all you want to do for the rest of your life is pick away the stone because the gold is so much more fun.

strangelove

None of us need ever fear that we don't have an active imagination, because imagination is mostly a willingness to entertain a strange idea now and then.

‒ Bert Dodson

I never had a reliable definition of imagination, but the one offered by Bert Dodson, author of "Keys of Drawing", is one that I find truly wonderful.  If anything, it demystifies this thing called imagination, generally viewed as a desirable quality possessed by a minority of people.  If we are to believe the above quote, we are all imaginative, despite what we may tell ourselves.  I think that all of us have strange ideas, and that some of us do entertain a strange idea from time to time.  I know I do.  For me, such an activity arouses enthusiasm and curiosity, opens the door to new discoveries, and makes it possible to conceive even stranger ideas.  Moreover, in a society where conformism is frequent, I need a regular dose of strange ideas to keep my sanity in check.

What remains to be done is to make these ideas a reality.

The only difference between creative people and so-called non-creative people is that creative people welcome their strange ideas.

‒ Bert Dodson

creativity for dummies

This is just too good.

Creativity Something has published "The New Rules of a Creator's Life".

This follows the 2011/12 edition of their "Rules of a Creator's Life", which I had included in an article that you may have read.

Needless to say, all these "rules" speak directly to my soul.  Even though I do not always succeed in applying them, I am glad that I know them.  They just make sense to me.

So why bother anyway with creativity, or the power of creation?  A simple reason is that it occupies the mind.  Another simple reason that I find more important is that it can enrich lives, and not just that of the creator.

There are several popular beliefs regarding creativity.  For example, some people think that something that is not original cannot be a sign of creativity.  I beg to differ.  One can argue that creativity and originality are related, but they mean two different things.  Originality is concerned primarily with new things.  Creativity, on the other hand, implies creating something, whether new or not.  I could say "Hello!" 10 times each to 10 different strangers over the course of the day, and I would believe that I was creating something each time: an interaction that had not existed before.

Also, there is the misconception that creativity is mostly reserved for artists or people in art-related industries.  I imagine that this idea is based on the assumption that art is about things like drawing, painting, sculpture, dancing, photography, etc., even though art is much broader that that (I should probably not even try to define what art is).  Again, creativity implies creating something.  It does not matter whether you are a painter, a factory worker, an engineer, a secretary or even an occasional daydreamer.  As long as you are spending your time producing something that did not exist before, you are creating.  At least that is what I think.

In a way, we are always creating.  Our lives, for one thing.

While we are all generally capable of creating things, there are different levels of creativity.  Some require little effort whereas others require much more.  Also, some have an impact on an individual ‒ possibly the creator ‒ and others have an impact on society, as noted by the psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book "Creativity", where he distinguishes creativity with a c from creativity with a C.  Whatever the case may be, if you are looking to bring about more creativity in your life, you can check out the rules above or simply read no more than the message below.

"Everything I needed to know about creativity I learned by making mistakes"

our deepest fear

One of my favorite passages of all time comes from "A Return to Love", a book by Marianne Williamson:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

When reflecting on the passage, I like to equate the idea of letting my light shine with that of loving myself.  And that said, the suggestion that my deepest fear is that of loving myself is one that disgusts me.

s'aimer ou ne pas s'aimer

I was on my way to work one morning last week when I saw the magazine cover below on the wall of a kiosk.

It's the June 2014 issue of a magazine named "Philosophie" and the main title on the cover is "Faut-il s'aimer soi-même ?"  Those words translate to "Does one have to love oneself ?" in English.

C'mon.  Really?

Is there more than one logical answer to this question?

Well, for the purposes of philosophical debate, there are several answers.  However, as far as the well-being of human beings is concerned, I see only one.

And, in my opinion, choosing to love yourself does not necessarily mean that the sole object of this love is yourself.

survival of the misfit

This is survival of the fittest
This is do or die
This is the winner takes it all
So take it All, A-All, A-All, A-All

...

But I want you to doubt me, I don't want you to buh-lieve
Cause this is something that I must use to succeed
And if you don't like me then fuck you, self-esteem
Must be fuckin' shootin' through the roof cause trust me
My skin is too thick and bullet proof to touch me
I can see why the fuck I disgust you, I must be
Allergic to failure cause every time I come close to it I just sneeze
but I just go achoo then A-chieve!

‒ Eminem, "Survival"

This is the song that I am feeling right now.  Right now meaning at the very moment that I am typing this.



As brilliant as the above video is, it's really all about the song.

It's so lyrical, so aggressive, so raw.  So Eminem.  And so like "'Till I Collapse", which happens to be one of my favorites.

And just like on that track, Eminem delivers a clear message on "Survival", and it is a similar one: when faced with adversity, you survive, or better yet thrive, by using the situation to surpass yourself.  Although this interpretation may fall short compared to the value of this song, it must be nonetheless noted that adversity as it is referenced here is perceived as a necessity, or even as an opportunity.

And the truth is that many of us, if not all, encounter adversity from time to time.  Job loss, breakups, financial issues, and health problems are some common ones.  While I am not immune to these kinds of adversity, the one that I experience on a more durable basis results from the feeling that I do not fit well in society.  The feeling of being a misfit, in short.  Misfit by his point of view, misfit by his ideas, misfit by his interests.  I accept that deep down within myself, this is what I truly yearned to be.  Not necessarily a misfit per se, but someone different.  Special.  Yet the pressures of society have been such that I often settled for a life where I talked and I behaved in the same way as the majority of the people around me.  Talk about conflict.

However, in spite of the external pressure and the internal conflict, the misfit in me refuses to rest.  It was never completely silent in the tough times of the past, so I do not expect it to be so in the uncertain events of the future.  Moreover, it has been by choosing to nourish this misfit that I have been able to give life to my operations.  It has been by choosing to nourish this misfit that I have been able to experience inner peace and plenty of joy.  It has been by choosing to nourish this misfit that I have survived well enough and long enough to write this.

So, in the words of Eminem, who also sees himself as a misfit, this is something that I must use to succeed.  To surpass myself.

But this is not just survival of the fittest, as the chorus of "Survival" says.

This is also survival of the misfit.

I used to be the type of kid that, would always think the sky is fallin'
Now I think the fact that I'm differently wired's awesome

‒ Eminem, "Legacy"

dare to dream

I recently discovered this gem thanks to Peggy, a young woman passionate about living her dream and creating her reality.

What this video illustrates in less than 8 minutes, this blog has attempted to communicate for a year ... and came up short.

So for once I will not say anything else.  Except that I really liked the fact that the whole thing was drawn.

You can show or hide subtitles by clicking on the rectangular icon to the right of the clock.



The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

‒ Eleanor Roosevelt

les grands esprits

Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.

Les grands esprits discutent des idées. Les esprits moyens discutent des événements. Les petits esprits discutent des gens.

‒ Eleanor Roosevelt


May we all be grands esprits.

what would hypnotica do?

I do not have the words to describe Eric von Sydow, a.k.a., Hypnotica.  Sage?  Poet?  Pick-up artist?  Perhaps none of the three, or even all of them.  As the man would like it himself, he would not put himself in a category.

I discovered Hypnotica about two years ago on the Internet.  I can no longer remember exactly how, though it's safe to say that I was browsing websites related to picking up women.  My search came to a halt when I stumbled on an interview of him titled "The Rise of The Renessaince Man - A Conversation With Hypnotica".

Hypnotica talked about the value of being a man that thrived in the presence of a woman's sexual energy.  In the process, he discussed his experience, described his philosophy, and gave some advice directed at men.  There was one particular part of the interview where he confirmed having walked through a shopping mall with a dildo taped to his head.  Imagine.  A dildo!  He admitted that some people had called that stupid.  Others had thought that he was just trying to build self-confidence.  But Hypnotica, the "inner game guru", could see beyond all that.  While self-confidence was part of the matter, what he really wanted was to desensitize himself to public ridicule.  Most importantly though, he wanted to be, in his own words, an "iconoclast thinker".

Although I am largely unfamiliar with the term, I would say that an iconoclast thinker is someone who not only sees the world differently but who also shapes his mind as he wants.  He is not bound to ways of thinking that are popular in society.  Actually, he is free from the conditioning that most people have been subjected to since childhood.  Clearly, an iconoclast thinker creates his own path in life, which is decidedly different from the one followed by the majority of people.

It goes without saying that I was enlightened after reading the interview.  As I had already become interested in the control of consciousness and in the ways of using this control to suppress fear, I could instantly relate to what Hypnotica was saying.  So I concurred when he stated that the way to reduce fear (if not eliminate it) was to embrace it in the circumstances where it was experienced; acting otherwise would do nothing but perpetuate it.  Hypnotica's approach to this kind of problem was extreme though.  And it was loud.  This guy wanted to hammer home the point.  Good thing that he did, because otherwise I may not have taken notice.  Operation Safe Sex was even inspired in part from his dildo experience (or rather from him sharing it).  Whenever I start feeling fearful moments before launching the operation, I try to focus by asking myself a simple question: "What would Hypnotica do?"  The answer comes straight away as a no-brainer: "He would forge ahead."  So ahead I have (almost) always forged, and ahead I plan to keep forging.

Recently, I recalled the interview.  I searched high and low for it on the Internet, to no avail.  I started regretting not having saved a copy for myself*.  Luckily, I was able to pick myself up after discovering that Hypnotica had published a book called "Metawhore: My Cock Don't Talk Politics".  It seemed to be the perfect consolation prize, and I wasted little time grabbing it off Amazon.com.

It's a poignant, sensational book about Hypnotica's life experience thus far, presented in a no-holds-barred style.  "Metawhore is a journey through nonconformity, spiritual growth, and sexual expression, revealing the primal inner man and exploring the vast terrain of the female psyche.  It's a middle finger to social conditioning and a thumbs-up to individuality", says the first paragraph on the back cover.  Just enough to get me hooked.  I gobbed up everything like an impoverished kid in front of a buffet of cakes.  Quite simply, the book is badass.  I noted that the author used the phrase "it's just one of my temporary wacky social experiments" to reassure his worried parents before adopting a homeless lifestyle and that he wrote "I think for myself as a free spirit".  How about that.  Social experiments and free spiritedness were not just in my head after all.

For Hypnotica though, yet another virtual mentor, they were a way of life.


* This is not exactly true. I found just yesterday a part that I had saved of the interview in December 2011. And it is the part that matters.

the greatest love of all

Whitney Houston said it best.

From the moment "I Will Always Love You" was released, I spent years praising the song and even claiming that it was by far the singer's best work.

That opinion got challenged though once I stumbled upon "Greatest Love of All" about two years ago.  I was already familiar with the song, but it was only after rediscovering it that I found myself ready to appreciate it properly.  Within a few listens, the vocal prowess demonstrated in "I Will Always Love You" had taken a backseat to the message of "Greatest Love of All".

Indeed, I was ready for this.  At that time, I had just deduced some theories on self-love and was taking immense delight in seeing how straightforward they were.  Then came this song.  Its lyrics carried a message that rang loud and clear and that, more importantly, was in line with my dear theories.  I was nothing short of elated.

Much credit goes to songwriters Michael Masser and Linda Creed.



While all the words to the song are great, the final part of the chorus is where the power of the message is concentrated:

Because the greatest love of all / Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all / Inside of me
The greatest love of all / Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself / It is the greatest love of all

Imagine that.  This thing called love, that many of us have searched for, are searching for, and will be searching for, is at its greatest within us.

May we all keep learning to love ourselves.