Love is intelligent
“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Love is intelligent? I never thought of it that way before. The word love is over used and misunderstood in our society. I was told I must love and respect others but nobody told me I needed to love myself too. The notions that were enforced in my upbringing and my education were, listen to your elders, obey your teachers, respect your parents, mind your manners, and watch your peas and ques. The list goes on and nowhere along the way did anyone explain what love was or what it meant. The reason for this is you can’t give something that you don’t have yourself. The quote from the bible “love thy neighbour as thy self” was thrown around. The neighbour part was the part of that you had better listen too! Or else! In school we were taught about mathematics, social studies which consisted of learning where a place was in the world by coloring each country a different color. You could not use the same color twice and heaven help you if you strayed out of the lines. We were taught about all the wars that were fought for us and we had to memorize all the names of the Presidents and Prime Ministers and the times and dates of all said “wars”. But love was never mentioned. The word “respect “was thrown around but never shown. You were always reminded when being disrespectful usually in the form of corporal punishment, a slap, the strap, dragged down the hall to the office to get the strap from the dreaded “head of all that he or she surveys” by the ear ,(which really hurts,)by teachers, who were determined to teach said student, all about respect. After being dragged and strapped you were “respectfully” reminded what a terrible person you were for not following all (written in stone) rules.
Love, what does it mean? I am 52 years old and still trying to figure it out. Love is intelligence! In this New Year I set out to learn about love and use my intelligence not my lower base instincts to pursue that goal. I’ve tried many, many times to live my best life, I’ve frustrated myself, hated myself, force fed myself, punished myself but not once did I love myself. These next 12 months are dedicated to doing just that.

“Love Dedication”
Before you dedicate your life to a person, a marriage, a family; to a corporation, a political party, a peace campaign; to a religion, a revolution, a spiritual path; make one other dedication first.
First dedicate yourself to LOVE. Decide to let love be your intention, your purpose, and your point. And let love inspire you, support you, and guide you in every other dedication you make thereafter.
~Robert Holden