What Makes The World Go Around

People ask what makes the world go around. Some say money. Some say power.
There are many answers to this question. Ask 100 people and you'll get 100 answers.
My answer is love. I feel that love makes the world go around. All of our actions and
emotions stem from love or the lack of love.

Everyone wants to be loved and to love in return. When we close ourselves away from
love, we shut off a vital force that we need to live. Then we begin to hate others for not
loving us. Or, even worse, we become indifferent to the world around us. Love and hate
are two sides of the same coin. It takes passion to love and to hate. They are both
powerful emotions. Indifference is a lack of all emotion. When we become indifferent to
the world around us, we no longer care about anything. We can walk by people and not
care that they are suffering. The needs of others mean nothing to us because we have lost
the ability to feel. The world has gotten so offtrack and in chaos because people just don't
care any more.

When we are born, we have an inherent desire to be loved. It is not just a want, it is a need.
If we are lucky, we have people that meet and nurture that need. But far too often, there are
children that are beaten and tortured by the ones that are supposed to care for them. Even
worse, they are neglected and ignored, made to feel like they are worthless and don't matter.
So hatred starts to build and they search for ways to feel. Some grow up and abuse their
own kids or their spouses, causing the cycle to repeat for generations. Others fight for power
so they will never feel helpless again. And others try to amass wealth so they will never feel
hungry or have to want for anything ever again in their lives. Then there are the ones that build
walls and shut other people out so they won't have to be hurt again. They would rather feel
empty inside than risk feeling physical and emotional pain. So they drift through life, never
letting anyone close to them. They exist but they don't live. They eat, breathe and merely go
through the motions of living until they die and can leave this life behind them.

If you make it through childhood with a whole soul, having been loved and given the basic
skills and tools to survive, you are lucky. Then you go out into the world, hoping to find the
missing part of your soul. You search for that person that will complete you. That one person
that sees you and loves you just as you are. Thus the dating game begins. There are very few
people that find this special person early in life. We have all heard the tales of two people that
met when they were kids and loved each other their whole lives. Childhood and high school
sweethearts are very rare but they do happen. Too often, we change as we grow older and
the person you love one day becomes the person you can't stand the next day. Or they change
and you are no longer what they want. Life is cruel that way. So many of us continue the search,
having our hearts broken over and over again. And we do our share of breaking other peoples'
hearts also. The fact is our souls get battered and bruised during this time. Many of us try to
change to hold on to someone that we love. That seldom works and we only betray ourselves
when we do so. It is a miracle that any of us survive this time in our lives.

But the lucky ones find that special someone. Often you'll start off as friends and then one day
you look at each other and know that this is the person you want to grow old with. Some times
you'll just bump into each other and you find that you can't stop thinking about each other. Love
finds us in many different ways. For those of us fortunate to find it, we grab on with both hands
and never let go. Many times we may love somebody but we are not able to live with them.
That kind of love leaves a special scar. We may marry a person and not be able to make the
differences work. Hard times may befall us and instead of coming together we drift apart. Each
failed relationship takes a bit of our hearts and souls. Then we turn to our careers or our hobbies
to fill the void in our lives. Some of us draw inward, not wanting to feel the pain of rejection again.
We live in our own world, shut off from others, not wanting to be hurt again.

Love is the most powerful emotion there is. Without love, a soul cannot come into its full potential.
We live blighted and empty lives, yearning for that which we do not have. Love, or a lack of love,
is what makes this world go around. Every person has the ability to love and show love to others.
If we all loved the other people we share this planet with, this world would be so much better.
You cannot make someone love you, but you have the power to love them. If only we all used
this power more, how different would our world be?