Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Love and Let Love!
With the vote for the same-sex marriage amendment upcoming, we felt it
was timely to repost this blog from a year ago. We hope that you agree
that we all should have the legal right to marry whomever we choose to.
If you don’t agree with this, please at least consider that our
government’s position on what is socially acceptable and what is deemed
legal or not has continued to change throughout our history. We hope
that you will agree that these amendments have been for the better and
that you too are ready to evolve and grow, as has our great nation.
Having been in the engagement and wedding ring business for most of my
life, I’ve had the opportunity to meet literally thousands of couples in
love looking for rings to symbolize their relationship and lifelong
commitment to one another. These couples come in all sizes, shapes,
colors and types. The one thing they usually all share in common is
their love for one another. It’s truly the reason I’m in this business.
And I’m sure that our EE Robbins associates would say the same.
I
believe that love makes life worth living. It is the most wonderful of
all emotions. I can’t even imagine what my life would be like without
my wife and best friend, Sherri.
The diametrically opposite
emotion to love is hate. Hate is an ugly word, and an even uglier
emotion. While we know that hate exists, often abundantly, we all wish
it did not. Even so-called religious people (from many assorted
religions) can sometimes be inconsistent in their love and at times even
hateful in their thoughts and actions. I’m always amazed at this
hypocrisy. Isn’t religion, worshiping God in any form, supposed to be
about love? Would God, or however you or I define a Supreme Being, want
us to be hateful? I’m certainly no preacher, nor even formally
religious, but it seems to me that love should be the driving force in
life. It sure shouldn’t be hate!
The point is this - love comes
in many different forms. I have seen couples that are totally in love
that are man and woman, loving couples that are man and man and couples
in love that are woman and woman. And all of these relationships are
beautiful in their own way and deserving of equal respect and equal
status. Now maybe by my writing about this controversial topic, some
people will no longer want to shop at EE Robbins. That is certainly
one’s choice, but if you or someone you know feels that way, I would ask
you to search your heart and ask yourself if such beliefs are truly
loving? Or do you believe that your own narrow concept of love is the
only way that love can be defined?
I was a history major in
college and I still continue to read a lot of historical non-fiction. I
can tell you without question that beliefs, customs and what is
considered socially acceptable change and evolve with the times. It was
only about a hundred and fifty years ago that many people in this
country felt that it was morally acceptable for one human being to own
and enslave another human being. It was less than one hundred years ago
that our country allowed women the right to vote. Before that time, many
people felt women did not deserve this right. Now think about this for a
moment - it was only about fifty years ago that many white people in
this country felt that those of a different color did not deserve to
share the same equal rights.
When will we learn? When will we
accept that we are not all the same? When will we understand that we
don’t have to look, act and or think the same? When will we evolve to
the point that we can celebrate our differences rather than condemn
those who don’t believe as we do?
I’d be willing to bet and I
fervently hope that it won’t be long before we accept that people can
love differently than we do. Some of us find love with the opposite sex
and others may find love with the same sex. Either way, it is still
love! And two people in love, no matter their sexual preference, deserve
to be viewed the same and given the same basic and equal rights.
That is true love! And it’s how I want our world to be. Isn’t it time that we all learn to love and let love?
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