Love Rules!

The Point of Exclamation

As a songwriter, one never knows how a lyric or a title will be ultimately treated by the test of time. In most circumstances the words carry the meaning intended by the author or composer. But in repeated use, a word that’s missing, a typographical error, or even the absence of a punctuation mark can alter or skew an interpretation. Take for instance the song “Love Rules!”

Without the exclamation point, the title of the song suggests it might be a listing of regulations or requirements to be followed. But with the exclamation point in place at the end of the two words, it implies that a response to Love (a word usually considered an action or a verb) might indicate an attitudinal imperative.

A what?!

Seriously…think about a sentence in which you’ve heard (most likely from a representative of the younger generation) an expression ending in the word “rules.” It might have been as simple as “...this pizza rules!” or “... weekends rule, dude!”  But the inference drawn from the use of the spoken exclamation is that something of value has been discovered and is worth celebrating.

That was my intention by placing the exclamation point at the end. And so it is with a certain sadness that I’ve seen the title of my song without its exclamation point appear in album reviews or even in advertisements listing the titles on the album ONE&MANY. <sigh> Evidently someone didn’t get the memo: “Love Rules!”

Love is revealed at the speed of light…
You don’t need to be a scientist to know that’s right.  
Love is here today, tonight…Love rules!

One recent morning, while reading one of The Cottage Substack offerings by Diana Butler Bass, I was reminded and reawakened to the poetic/metaphorical connections to the phenomenon of “light.” I posted a note back to her that said, "Ah…that you should touch so eloquently on the metaphorical connection between Light and Love. I felt like I was in a science class, taught by an esteemed religious scholar who, drawing back a curtain that looked to be a chalkboard covered with equations, invites us to step through into another dimension of understanding." I was responding to this:

In the past, “light” wasn’t always easy to grasp. It was mysterious and hard to describe, except, perhaps, by poets and prophets. But in recent centuries, scientists have sharpened our understanding of such mysteries. From physics, we’ve learned that light is, within itself, a kind of diversity, existing as both a particle and a wave and (in another sense) as a phenomenon which is neither a particle nor a wave [which actually are macroscopic phenomena, such as baseballs or ocean waves], a small part of a vast field of electro magnetic radiation. What we experience as light is a tiny portion of a vast spectrum. We only see a certain part of waves of energy swirling around us.

Diana was writing about the prologue to the gospel of John, which doesn’t begin with a nativity story, but presents Jesus as the Word, the logos, present from the  beginning of time. John the writer then refers to another John, called the Baptist, who came ”to bear witness to the light.” She said that 

John testified to both the particular arrival of Jesus the Christ and witnessed to the sacred radiance of the entire cosmos, the “divine waves” that are the undercurrent of the whole. One made visible in the birth of a child, a particle of existence, the singularity of a life; the larger field, the wavelengths of eternity, still-invisible to the human eye…

And, speaking of exceeding boundaries (visible and invisible), while reviewing the lyrics to this song, I became aware that I had caused the word ‘Love’ to be written over 20 times. Bad form perhaps, but upon reflection it still doesn’t seem all that excessive.

You might be young, you could be old
Everybody needs a hand to hold
Somehow we know before we’re told…Love rules!

What are the ways in which we know something before we’re told? Perhaps it’s a moment of awareness and belief in something beyond imagining—the recognition of a Loving  larger-than-life presence. Whether realized by viewing the vastness of the night sky or the miniature veins of a tender leaf dotted with dew, there does seem to be a whispered interpersonal promise being made, guiding us through the world around us as well as informing our relationships with one another.

Love’s a beggar, not a thief
Steals no hearts, brings no grief…
Just waits patiently for belief…Love rules!

Sometimes, reading something written over 25 years ago, exposes its meaning to a scrutiny that isn’t necessarily kind.  I wrote “Love Rules!” in the late 1900’s (and even just expressing it that way makes it seem like such ancient history), but having recently celebrated my 86th year on this planet, I have come to find the last few lines of the song to be telling—a reminder in my final years of what a best case scenario might ultimately be:

Dust to dust, we humankind
Watch stars explode and the suns come shine
But Love will watch the end of time..Love rules!

When we’re gone and in our graves…
Buried by the things we’ve saved,
Remembered only by what we gave…Love rules!

And finally…

Love is gentle, Love is kind
Love forgives, but it is not blind
Love is what we were born to find…Love rules!

---

Connections:

Here is Diana Butler Bass’s post “A Beautiful Advent” on the theme of light from her Substack newsletter The Cottage. 

Learn about the finite speed of light with this video segment adapted from Shedding Light on Science for PBS Learning Media.

Photo credit: SUNSET AT VINALHAVEN (nps)

Vibrations:

Listen to Noel’s “Love Rules!” on his albumm ONE&MANY. 

Resonance:

What do you make of the Carl Jung quote: "Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other."