Musical Musing: “All You Need Is Love” The Beatles

All You Need Is Love

Love, love, love.
Love, love, love.
Love, love, love.

There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game.
It's easy.

Nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.
It's easy.

All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

Nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.

All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

All you need is love (all together, now!)
All you need is love. (everybody!)
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need (love is all you need).

Yee-hai!
Oh yeah!
She loves you, yeah yeah yeah.
She loves you, yeah yeah yeah,

I feel like I’ve mused on this song before, but that’s one of the awesome things about the Beatles catalogue (and Across the Universe, the movie that celebrated the diversity and story telling of the catalogue); there’s so much there, so much that can be said of it, that even when I’ve finished with this one, I likely won’t be done. But if I get a bit repetitive of things I’ve said before, forgive me.

I’m a Christian existentialist. As I understand it, Existentialism puts existence before essence, and we are defined by our actions. Before you call me dark and moody or dismiss me as a nut, let me explain it this way. All of us are. Before I am a woman, or a wife, or white, or Christian, or straight, or a meat-eater, or a pet owner, or infertile, or any of the other millions ways to describe me, I am. When you strip all the labels away, all of the “essence” that makes me really me, you arrive at the fact that I exist. I am. My husband… before he is a man, or my husband, or white, or of Choctaw descent, or Christian or anything else, he is. If you strip away all the “descriptions” that are used to label and identify us, you come back to the simple existence. As an existentialist, I say that existence is more important than essence, meaning that the sheer fact that you are is more important, of more weight, of more value than any of the things that make up your essence, that make you identifiably you.

That’s important, because when we go back to that common ground, that we are before we are anything else, then we can learn to love and respect each other there. It no longer matters that someone is a different ethnicity, a different religion, a different nationality, a different history or perspective. They deserve (and receive) love and respect for their existence. And when you recognize that the rest is unimportant to their basic value as a human being, then you can celebrate the differences that make each of us unique. I can see the color of your skin as different, and yet no less beautiful, no less worthy, no less deserving than I am. I can view your religion, your nationality, your history and outlook, even when they’re different from my own, as paint over the basic canvas of you, and admire the skill and beauty with which you became the individual you are.

The other facet of existentialism is that we are defined by our actions. And if you think about it, we really are. Those who look at you, who see you, are left to describe and define who you are in their minds by only those things that have an outward effect on the world. They can’t read your mind or your intentions, they can’t know what you mean or meant… all they can judge by is outward actions. So yes, in a very real way, others form their definition of who I am based on my outward actions.

That’s important too. You may have heard that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”… we all mean to do the best, but how often do our actions have a negative consequence. It demands that we consider the consequences of our actions, not only on the immediate situation, but in the larger sphere of time yet to come and others all around us. If I’m hungry, feeding myself is a good and desirable thing. But beyond just feeding me what my tongue wants to taste, I need to consider the further actions of feeding myself. For one thing, I need to either grow my own food (and consider what eating now means to the future self who will need to eat again) or pay for it, either from the store or the restaurant. Just taking it affects the lives of others, who count on the income they make from selling things so that they can buy food and pay bills and meet their needs, etc. So even my appetite has an effect on other people, and on myself (and that’s before we consider what I should or shouldn’t eat for the greater health of my body). And since the people from whom I took the food don’t know why I took it, I am “thief” in their minds, and not “hungry person”.

Of course, the other side of that is to bring yourself to a place where you stop and think about the intentions of others. I know, that would seem to defy the fact that we can’t read intentions. But if I want people to give me the benefit of the doubt, shouldn’t I do the same? For instance: My father was in a car accident when I was 17. He died instantly. While there are many in my family who are still angry over that, I never really was. Not really. You see, I guessed at the probable, likely intentions of those involved in the accident. The man who caused it was almost certainly not looking to go killing people, did not mean to cause the accident, would not if he could do it over again, and was remorseful (maybe even still is) over the whole thing. The people driving the truck that drove into my father’s door weren’t driving around that morning looking for people to careen into. When you realize that no one intended for anyone to die that day, when you realize that they’re probably sorry it happened, that they would probably do things differently if they could have… that they are no different from who you are on the most basic level of who they are… how can you be angry with them?

Now, I’ll admit, I don’t always practice what I preach, and I’m AWFUL in the car. (No, really… I curse like a sailor at other drivers, even when I’m not driving. It’s really not pretty. I recommend against it.) But if I stop and think about it, if I put existence before essence, if I think about what they might have meant to accomplish by thinking about my own intentions and actions in similar situations, then life becomes more peaceful.

OK. I really did mean to say all of that, but none of it really got back to the song. But maybe I can tie my thoughts on the song to the above. Let’s see…

You may remember that I’ve said I believe God is in complete control of every atom in the universe (or multiverse, but that’s a bit of SciFi geekiness I won’t bore you with just now). That means that nothing happens without a reason, a greater purpose than just what we can observe… just as we can’t observe the reasons or purposes behind other people’s actions (Ha! Did it! W00t!!). We can’t know the mind of God, so we can’t judge why things happen. And His control, His omnipotence (or all-powerfulness, almightiness), requires His omniscience (all-knowingness). In other words, He can’t have control over everything without knowing it already.

If you stretch that idea, if you lay it like a blanket over your view of life, then you may be able to tell where I’m going with this.

“There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done”. On the one hand, because we are all equal on our most basic level, there’s nothing you can do that someone else couldn’t do. Anyone could do it. But more than that, there’s something comforting and reassuring in the knowledge that God is able to do anything we can do, and more. I can’t do something He can’t do… or even undo. I can’t mess up so big that God can’t bring me through it and work it to His glory. Because He knows everything, because He can do everything, because He is all powerful, nothing is impossible. And all you need to do what can be done is Love.

God is Love. 1 John 4:7. One of the deepest, truest, most stunningly life changing things in the bible, that I’ve ever found in my life, is in those three little words. God is Love. Go through the Bible and look at every verse that speaks of Love, and realize that they are all talking about the character of God. Love is patient, Love is kind. No really, look at what it says; all you really need is God. All you need is Love. Nothing you can do, Love can’t do. Nothing you can sing, Love can’t sing.

When it comes down to it, the only thing that only you can do, is learn how to be you. You can learn how to live your life, “play the game”, and be you. All you need in order to be the best you that you can be is Love. All you can do is be you, and all you need to be you is the everything of God.

And you know what? He loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah. He loves you yeah, yeah, yeah.

God loves you, Beloved. It’s His nature. It’s who He is. He can’t not love you. And you know what, that’s all you need. God’s love is so big, so expanisive, so everything, that it’s really all you need. All you need is Love. Love is all you need.

Oh, if only more people knew that. If only the people who gave us that awesome song, so full of amazing truth, had known the truth they were singing.