By Jim Heffernan
This book just kind of caught my eye somehow like a bright, shiny object. I’m glad I knew nothing of the author. I’m afraid that my biases might have kept me from the book had I known more about her beforehand. Just having “Love” on the cover prompted me to get the book from the library and not risk wasting money on a book that might be disappointing. I liked it well enough that I ended up getting the Kindle version because it turned out to be the kind of book I knew I would like to come back to occasionally.
A serious guy like me might have stayed away had I known that she was buddies with Oprah and most of her books deal with spirituality, God and miracles. She ran for President for a time in 2020, but was way too nice to gain any traction. I don’t even remember her running.
I’ve always been a little addicted to politics, but I’m starting to lose my taste for it. The politics of fear and the politics of “us and them” are just killing the buzz for me. I wonder if that isn’t the objective. I can see a “long con” position that perhaps if politics becomes distasteful enough, people will be discouraged and not bother with it anymore. Nature abhors a vacuum, but I think fascism loves it.
Marianne Williamson offers a wonderful alternative. She pretty much lays it all out in this excerpt from page 10, “We don’t just need a progressive politics or a conservative politics; we need a more deeply human politics. We need a politics of love. Love is the angel of our better nature, just as fear is the demon of the lower self. And it is love, not fear, that has made us great. When politics is used for loveless purposes, love and love alone can override it. It was love that abolished slavery, it was love that gave women suffrage, it was love that established civil rights, and it is love that we need now.”
The book is divided into 9 chapters where Marianne looks at politics, history, economics, the environment, race, immigration and education through her own special lens of love. Many will dismiss her as impractical and too “touchy-feely”, but I think that’s their loss. I don’t think any of us like how things are working today. A truly fresh perspective may just be the remedy we need for us and for our planet.
Here are some excerpts that particularly struck me:
“Our politics today is severely out of alignment with our decency, our love and our higher intelligence–but we need to more than just whine about that. We need to course-correct. We need to realign our politics with the angels of our better nature.”
“America was a country that had everything, was blessed beyond comprehension, yet chose to sell its soul to the highest bidder. We put economics before love, sales before ethics, and our government on the bidding block.”
“America has flourished most when corporations shared the fruits of increased productivity with workers and viewed their ethical obligations beyond mere fiduciary responsibility to stockholders……….corporations in America were expected to consider more than just stockholders to be stakeholders in the company. Employees were considered stakeholders. The community was considered a stakeholder.”
“A belief in separation is always at the root of a problem, and a realization of our oneness is always at the root of its solution.”
“We need to display as much conviction behind our love as some have displayed behind their hate.”
231 Pages, Published 4/23/2019. Available at Cloud and Leaf Bookstore in Manzanita, Tillamook Public Library, Amazon, Powell’s, and Barnes and Noble.