About Trump, Love, and Outer Space
Headline: Trump Announces Initiative for U. S ‘Love Force’
Correction: President Trump actually announced recently to a class of West Point cadets that he is seriously thinking of initiating a ‘Space Force’ as a branch of the U. S. Military. It’s a plausible idea, even a necessity in our loveless, warlike, political world society, but somehow, coming from Trump, it sounds unnerving. Where’s the love?
In what might sound to some like a comedy routine rivaling the famous Abbott and Costello ‘Who’s On First’, Trump told the young cadets, “You will be part of the five proud branches of the United States Armed Forces: Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and the Coast Guard, and we’re actually thinking of a sixth, and that would be the Space Force. Does that make sense?” Trump then pointed to a general in the audience and said, “Space Force General, you probably haven’t heard that, I’m just telling you now, perhaps. Because we’re getting very big in space, both militarily and for other reasons. And we are seriously thinking of the Space Force.”
“We’re getting very big in space.”…?? Sounds like something you’d hear regarding men’s underwear in the garment district on 7th Avenue in Manhattan. Sometimes I think Rodney Dangerfield has come back in the body of Donald Trump.
So, what’s love got to do with it? Keep reading.
In 1961 President John F. Kennedy initiated the Peace Corps. He was also the president who put Americans on the moon. President Jimmy Carter was famously involved in “waging peace and fighting disease” with the Carter Center Development Initiative. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal saved many Americans from desperation and poverty, and restored their dignity.
These presidential initiatives were all a kind of United States ‘Love Force’.
Donald J. Trump’s idea of a presidential initiative is to militarize outer space. Not colonize, but militarize. Big difference, semantically.
Some people’s core nature is to love. They are naturally loving human beings. Think of the ones you know personally. Then there are the more “warlike” or hawkish types. You know some of these too. There are extremes in both spectrums, then there are combinations, people with both traits, one sometimes overshadowing the other, and that’s what makes love so fascinating and complicated. It’s an elusive, moving target. It’s a reward.
How many times have you heard the saying, “Make love not war”? Nice idea, but not always practical or realistic. However, war is nothing more than tough love ...one way to look at it.
What exactly is love? Is it a physical reaction to an outside force? Is it a psychological attitude conceived within the nature of a person? I believe love is a force of nature.
One of my favorite authors, Richard Ford, said of love, “I think once you love somebody, you love somebody; that’s just how it is.”
There is what they call “true love”, whatever that is. I mean, if it’s not true then it’s not love. You’d think the two would go together hand in hand, heart to heart, but sometimes they don’t. If you have to brand love as “true”, then it’s either not love at all or some superficial emotional fallout.
You love your cat, right? You love your wife and kids too, and your parents, your family. You love your girlfriend or boyfriend. You “love” (in quotes now) your favorite teacher, movie star, rock star …shoes … food. I “love” lasagna ...and baseball…
Where’s this going? Keep reading.
Woody Allen, one of the funniest men alive, presented his theory on the mysterious subject of love. He said, “To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be happy one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness.”
Ironically but predictably, one of the funniest men alive is not a happy man.
There are many parallels between comedy and love. Someone once asked me if I thought comic Richard Belzer is funny. I said, “Sure, for a few minutes.” Similarly, maybe the ‘true” test and defining factor of love is time.
Juxtaposed to Woody’s theory, and not in any order of continuity here, an unknown theologian once said of love, “Love is not all about happiness, it’s about the challenges, that you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay, thanks for the tip.
…and Jesus Christ himself said of love, “Love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind …and love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22: 37.
Always good advice.
Another comic (some may feel differently), Andrew Dice Clay, defines another brand of love this way, “I’m not the greatest husband – I’ve got a girlfriend. It doesn’t’ really please my wife, but then if I was looking to please her I wouldn’t have a girlfriend. I mean, she knows about it, and I guess she’s okay with it. Plus, my kids like both of them.”
(BTW, Woody Allen said humorously of marriage, “Marriage is the death of hope.”)
Makes sense in an off-center way, I guess. After all, we are an off-center people in America, especially, today. We are a “free” people to say and do anything we want, and to love anyone anyway we want, for as much time as we like, or as much time as it lasts.
The point is that there is all kinds of love, and it’s defined within the perspective of the one who loves, who is loved, or the one selling love, and they’re not always in sync.
Have you ever wondered why most songs are about love? It’s probably because love is as precious a human commodity as time itself. It is experienced by every living thing. Every living thing reacts and responds positively to love. ‘Just Another Silly Love Song’, ‘Where Has Love Gone’, ‘Loving You’ are just a few of the gazillion love songs out there. ‘Forever My Love’ combines the two elements of love and time.
‘The Power of Love’ is another great song about the dynamic force of love. As you read this (and thank you if you’ve gotten this far and not bailed out) somewhere in your consciousness is the thought of something or someone you love. It may make you smile, it may make you cry. Your heart may be broken, but don’t worry, in time it will heal, we’re wired that way, or, your heart may be filled with joy, don’t worry about that either, there will be a down side. Either way, love is the driving force of life. Think of it as a reward. It’s both elusive, and always within reach. Like time itself, love is always there for you, to discover, to crave, to hide from, to use productively, to waste. To laugh about, to cry about.
Love is the driving force of life. It’s just that simple. So, why is love so complicated?
Maybe President Trump really should think about the “final frontier” in terms of a United States Love Force. Exploring outer space is a noble mission. Conquering outer space may be our destiny. Loving one another could be the key to the wonders of the universe, which just might be an individual journey experience, a reward, achieved only through love.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-george-kushma-379a5762
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