Don Juan DeMarco is a favorite movie of my husband’s and he watches it every few years. He watched it a few days ago as I tackled my social media and at the very end, this quote caught my imagination. “… (Don Juan) suffered from a romanticism which was completely incurable and even worse, highly contagious.” I think I’ve caught it. 😉
Imagine if love was contagious like an air borne disease. Wouldn’t that be glorious? Can you picture it? You’re walking down the street, minding your own business and you look up and find a couple in front of you making out. Like a spell cast, you head back home to find your wife and you wrap her up in a big warm hug. “I just had to tell you how much I love you,” you say.
We already know, from many studies, that hate is infectious. I assume most people are familiar with the blue-eyes, brown eyes experiment that Jane Elliot developed and used on her third grade class. If not, there are several articles online. The short version is that she split her class into two groups based on eye color and treated each group differently. The lesson was set out to teach about discrimination most especially regarding how black people were treated in the 60s. The experiment showed how easily we can group together against another community of people based on contrived cultural biases.
Why doesn’t it work the other way? Why isn’t love contagious?
Although it may not be contagious, we still feel its influence. We feel enriched when we hear of a great true love story and I, for one, never tire of hearing them. My husband and I have been told that our love is inspiring and gives people hope. I don’t think there is a bigger compliment than being an inspiration to someone else.
We are part of a wonderful community—two actually—where we share affection in the form of hugs with our friends. Hugs are a wonderful way to connect with those you love and care about. A warm embrace can shift a bad mood and/or make a person feel far less alone.
Check out this video on Free Hugs (It makes me cry every time):
Like love, hugs should be catching. Mata Amritanandamayi, otherwise known as the hugging saint, understands the power of the hug and has shared her physical embrace with millions of people.
Annie, my black stripped tiger kitty is lying across half of my lap and has her paw extended touching my right forearm. My left arm is draped over her back as I type and she is purring loudly. Just as she needs her daily affection, so do we. She is also brilliant at giving hugs. She loves to lay across my shoulder and press her head against my neck.
In the final book of the My Body Trilogy, Jane finally understands one of life’s most important lessons about love and connection. That’s all I’m going to share about that. 😉 But suffice it to say, we could all use a little more true love and affection infection each and every day. I hope we all “catch” the love bug and share it regularly.
Very warm hugs,
Blakely
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