All We Need: The Holidays, and the Beatles

(OKAY, OKAY…I CAN HEAR YOUR EYE ROLL FROM HERE)

Hands down, this is my absolute favorite time of year.

I am the first to admit that, despite all of my cynicism about everything else in life, I am somehow able to compartmentalize the holidays and allow my brain to enter into a caramelized, chocolate, candy-cane filled state a consciousness where just a beautiful display of twinkly lights makes my night.

Ok, yes, I’m being overly expressive and perhaps a tad dramatic, but you get what I’m trying to say. My penchant for the dramatics, though, got me thinking about the world today — where we are, what we’re doing about it, where we’re going, etc.

The questions everyone seems to be asking all revolve around “well, what’s our concrete plan?” Essentially, what are the concrete action items that we will implement to “beat” terrorism, global warming, hunger, poverty, pollution, and a host of other problems too numerous to list? To be sure, hardline, concrete action items are non-negotiable necessary elements of any fight with which we engage to counter any of the issues plaguing our world today. But, that’s not all we need. Action items won’t make a difference without a real human openness to understanding, to peace, to symbiosis and…dare I say it…to love.

Naysayers will scoff at this seemingly simplistic suggestion, but is it really that outrageous? Lennon and McCartney were spot-on, in my opinion…all we need is love. Now more than ever. Lennon suggested a world where there was “nothing to kill or die for” and where we all share our world. Was he so off base? No. He wasn’t.

However, the problem, i.e., seemingly insurmountable task, is how to urge global acceptance and implementation of this concept. Is reasoning with, for instance, a terrorist organization, even possible? Is there any sort of message/concept/sentence/word that will resonate and bring him/her/them to a negotiating table of sorts or prevent future terrorists from taking action? Or, has that time passed and now is the time for counter-action, and only counter-action? I hate to think that we are in that place.

Maybe I’ll be singing a different tune come January, but for now, I stand firm with the Beatles: “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” Peace y’all.

The author is an attorney working in a major metropolitan American city who focuses on public safety-related law. The author is part of The White Hat Syndicate, a Medium account launched on October 26 that publishes thought-provoking articles about cutting-edge homeland security topics. The six authors come from a diverse array of professional and personal backgrounds: legal, fire, environmental health, federal transportation security, and law enforcement.

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Opinions expressed in this essay are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official policy of their employer, professional associations, the United States Naval Postgraduate School, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.