We love our friends, our families, the animals with whom we live. But can we love people we don’t know? People who are different from us? People who live far away? People who experience trauma that makes our lives look like the Garden of Eden? But why should we love people we don’t know, don’t relate to, don’t want to relate to? It won’t make any difference anyway.
But here’s the thing. The more I think about loving – the kind that leaps over limits – the more connected I feel to something bigger than myself. When I let my love roam free, I feel fuller and more hopeful. So, can this be the summer of love?
In thinking about love, and all the risks involved in loving, I was reminded of The Rose by Amanda McBroom. This lovely and delicate song was first performed by Bette Midler who starred in the movie of the same name loosely based on the life of the 1960s pop star Janis Joplin.
WHERE THE SUMMER OF LOVE WAS BORN
Janis Joplin was a tragic figure with a voice unlike any other — a combination of blues, rock, and folk tempered by whiskey and drugs. Like many, many people during the ’60’s, I loved Joplin for her artistry and mourned her loss way before her time.
I’d like now to share her most famous performance at the Monterey International Pop Festival, a three-day music event held from June 16 to 18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in California.
The Monterey festival is famous for the first major American appearances by Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Ravi Shankar; the first large-scale public performance by Joplin; and the introduction of Otis Redding to a mass American audience.
Monterey placed California as a focal point for the 60’s counterculture and the birthplace of the “summer of love” — hippies, flower power, and flower children (aka baby boomers!). Joplin’s song about love lost is rough and tough, but hang in there. Hers is a performance worth experiencing.
FROM THE MOUTH OF A CHILD: PEACE IS LOVE
When a child talks about peace and love while standing amidst the ruins of their country, it feels to me that our world is broken beyond repair. I lean toward hopelessness and sadness, especially as our own country tilts toward fascism and revenge fantasies at the highest levels of our politics.
To stop this downward spiral, I try to put myself into the heart and soul of someone else, in this case of a little boy from Ukraine. Here is Fedir’s poem for peace.
LIFT EVERY VOICE
I believe that songs of hope are not restricted to any one group. I believe that songs such as the one that follows, often referred to as “The Black National Anthem,” can lift up many voices and open many hearts. Lift Every Voice and Sing was a hymn written as a poem by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson in 1900. His brother, John Rosamond Johnson, composed its music.
A choir of 500 schoolchildren at the segregated Stanton School, Jacksonville, Fl., first performed the song in public to celebrate President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Lift Every Voice was a rallying cry during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
LET’S MAKE THIS THE SUMMER OF LOVE
When COVID was at its worst and we were so isolated, I decided that, when it was over, I would connect with more people. Not just to those whom I knew, but to those little or unknown to me. In small ways, natural ways, surprising ways. So when it was safe at last, I started greeting people with a smile and a cheery “good morning” or “thank you” or “I love your hair/shirt/shoes/kid…” Wow!
During these tiny moments of connection it felt like the other person and I became known to one another through kindness, a loving word, a welcoming smile. There was a magic to these moments. To this day, I make these moments happen over and over because I know that, if we all do this, there will come a day when we can include the whole world. Let’s make this the summer of love.
