and all the joy within you dies
don't you want somebody to love
don't you need somebody to love
wouldn't you love somebody to love
you better find somebody to love
So sang Jefferson Airplane and I've sung along with this song any number of times over the years. When I need to get into the mindset of the sixties to write, listening to Grace Slick is the fast track to get there. I was just thinking about how we all want to be loved and how sometimes we can manipulate others - often cruelly - into revealing their concern and their love for us. We need and crave that reassurance. Then this song sprang to mind and I realized that Grace was singing for the opposite of this all too natural and often cruel desire to be loved - she was singing for somebody to love and urging her audience that they'd "better find somebody to love."
It occurred to me that Grace is echoing Jesus' message, as grace so often does, in highlighting the greatest commandment, which is to love. When she belts out, "You'd better find somebody to love," isn't she urging us to do exactly what Jesus said we were to do? It's not hard to find somebody - there are, after all, somebodies all around us, waiting and wanting to be loved. The question is, do we want to love them?
"You'd better find somebody to love." Yeah, if you already don't, you sure better! Or you are wasting existence...and failing your mission.
ReplyDeleteThere ARE so many somebodies needing that love, too....
Yes, there's a world full of them. And, it is the second half of the greatest commandment, after all. Remember too the Jesus said it was like the first - to love others equals loving God.
ReplyDelete