The Hopes and Fears of All the Years: Day 23
Love, Actually
“If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling love, actually … is all around.”
- Hugh Grant, Love Actually
We are now in the final days of Advent, and the theme we reflect on as we approach Christmas is love. As we begin this week I can’t help but think about a photo I took several years ago. It was around Christmas, and I was leaving a store in a mad rush when I happened to look down. At the spot where the concrete store entrance met the pavement of the parking lot, I saw a pothole, but it looked as if someone had created this divot almost intentionally.
The mini-crater was in the shape of a heart.
Since it was the appropriate season, I immediately thought about the opening monologue of one of my annual must-watch Christmas movies, Love Actually. This voiceover, with scenes of airport reunions playing on screen, is done in-character by Hugh Grant, who played the British Prime Minister, David:
“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling love, actually … is all around.”
He’s got a point. While hate and greed, and all sorts of other unfortunate things, seem to exist in abundance these days, I really believe that love does, too. Perhaps it goes unnoticed at times, lost in the cacophony of hatefulness that gets most of the attention, but love is, actually, all around us.
My hope for all of us, in this season and beyond, is that we can become attuned to the love that is all around us, all the time, and do our part to make it grow and flourish.
Reflection:
Where have you noticed love unexpectedly or surprisingly?
How can you participate in making love more visible?