I will always remember a dear friend of mine who once told me the story of her and her uncle.  One day, she and I had the opportunity to talk for hours when I accompanied her on a road trip to a job interview.  The whole time she was driving, we talked about so many things.  But the most wonderful thing was that I found out so much about her life before we met.  That’s when I found out about Uncle Fred.  Her Uncle Fred was the patriarch of the family.  And he loved my friend like he was her father and she was his daughter.  In fact, if they went somewhere together and someone assumed that she was his daughter, he wouldn’t correct them.

By her description of him and his love for her, it could only be described as “unconditional.”  She said of him, “I could have been swinging from a chandelier and he would have said, “That’s my girl!”  I remember thinking, “That’s how my Dad thinks about me.”  “That’s my girl!”  What an amazing, wonderful way to feel about someone!  It’s even more amazing to have someone feel that way about you.  I guess I always took it for granted that a dad would feel that way about his daughter.  Unfortunately, as I became older and lived outside the realm of my home, I found out that this is not necessarily true.

So often, I wonder why I was born into such a wonderful family, when there were others who experienced no such thing.  To say that this is unfair is an understatement.  It is not that lives lived with love are always perfect, but that love is powerful.  More than powerful, it is transformative. That’s why one should be loving.  And people should love even with self interest in mind, because we need love in our lives to give it meaning.  No person has control of the situation that they are born into.  Still, loving unconditionally, in as much as it can be an enormous challenge, has the power to change the world into a peaceful place to live.