What do you love?

Recently I sat down to visit with an uncle I see maybe once a year, if I’m lucky. The conversation wandered into politics and pop culture (it’s an inevitability around me) and he said my generation and those after mine are guided in politics and culture by the underlying question “What do you hate?”

That struck me. And he’s right. Everything is about hate. We hate that one movie. We hate genres of music. We hate musicians. We hate fake people. We hate school. We hate propaganda. We hate politicians. We hate the national debt. We hate cronyism. We hate our exes. We hate our friends’ exes. We hate drama. We hate paying bills. We hate when it rains right after getting our cars washed. We hate the words ‘Polar Vortex.’ We hate being ignored. We hate terrorism. We hate intolerance. We hate dirty dishes. We hate dropping our phones in the toilet. We hate pop-up ads. We hate failure. We hate gas prices and housing prices and food prices and clothing prices and insurance prices. We hate being told what to do. We hate being told what we can’t do. We hate being alone. We hate the NSA. We hate people who hate. We hate. We hate. We hate. (Are you exhausted yet?) All that hate drives our decisions.

But my uncle looked calmly at me after making his statement and asked me one simple question: What do you love?

Since that conversation I’ve been asking myself “What do you love?” I love singing. I love spinning wildly in the rain on a hot summer day. I love sunsets. I love swinging with my eyes closed. I love the laughter of my nieces and nephews. I love running barefoot through grass. I love hugs. I love cuddling up on the couch with my brothers and sisters- all six of them. I love being in my kitchen creating something- anything- delicious. I love kisses. I love God. I love being on the road. I love laughing. I love the smell of men’s cologne. I love music. I love the smell of libraries. I love spending time in my pajamas with friends, laughing and catching up. I love coffee. I love being told I’m just like my dad. I love being in love.

I tend to be more positive than negative and coming up with a love list was more difficult than pouring out the hate list. It’s no wonder crime is on the rise, morals are on the decline, and disdain for fellow humans is rampant- hate drives us. So I’d like to pose a question. A question, if asked and answered everyday, might change how a person views their world. A simple question that seems so tiny I almost glossed over it when it was asked to me:

What do you love?