What’s Love Got To Do With It –
Isn’t it the ultimate connectedness?
Somehow Tina Turner’s song came to mind when I was thinking about this post. And now I worry – do people who were born around 2000 even know her? When to me, born in 1046, she was an iconic singer, not only because of her amazing voice but also because she broke all previous music history records with her comeback in 1984 when she was 45 years old. At the bottom of this piece you’ll find the video of Tina’s song, although the love she sings about – romantic love– isn’t really the topic of my piece.
The daily news (especially mainstream media) is dominated by acts of heartless cruelty and cold, despicable selfishness. If you’re a regular reader of my posts you won't need an example, and there are way too many to list them all, but here are just a few of the most egregious recent ones: the “Big Ugly Mega Bill” which just passed the House, will cut approximately $715 billion from healthcare, mostly from Medicaid, and almost $300 billion from SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). More than 2.7 million American households would lose benefits. Medicare would be cut as well, by about $500 billion. Or consider the outrageous ICE deportations, reminiscent of the German Gestapo (ICE would receive over $68 billion in tax money, if the above Bill makes it through the Senate). Or think of the many government agencies which lost funding and employees, such as NIH (National Institutes of Health) or NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).
All of this demonstrates a serious lack of love, of heart, I thought – when it occurred to me that many Republicans don’t seem to be very smart, either. There’s a good chance that lawmakers in red states won’t get re-elected in2026 (if voting is still possible, that is). While nothing can change the conviction of die-hard MAGA cult members that the object of their adoration is nothing but a lying, egotistical felon, one does hear about people who regret they voted for him. Because they lost their job, money, even family members. When others like them find out that they’ll have to pay for doctor’s visits, medication, and hospital stays that number will rise.
No heart, no brains – this reminded me of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written in 1900 by L. Frank Baum. The Tin Woodman longs for a heart (although he doesn’t have a brain, either) and the Scarecrow wishes for nothing more than a brain (while the lack of a heart doesn’t bother him). And then there is the Cowardly Lion who is all distraught because he doesn’t have courage.
Further association took me to the threefold human being and the three connected activities of thinking, feeling, and willing, one of the basic concepts of Anthroposophy. Let me explain.
In the late 90s I did a training in Artistic Therapy which spanned several years. It was based in part on Goethe’s scientific methodology (you can learn more about this here and here), and also on the teachings of Austrian philosopher and researcher Rudolf Steiner, himself a lifelong Goethe scholar. Steiner was the founder of Anthroposophy which inspired many initiatives, such as the Waldorf Schools, Biodynamic Farming, and Artistic Therapy, which can be prescribed by physicians (MDs) to assist in the healing process of various diseases.
Looking at the threefold human organism, Steiner distinguishes between three systems which work together but are also independent from each other to some degree. Thinking refers to the head and the nerve-sense system, feeling relates to the rhythmic system which includes heart and lung (both breathing and blood circulation are rhythmic processes), and willing has to do with the limbs and the metabolic system. Each system involves a different level of consciousness: we are (or should be) quite aware of our thoughts, our feelings are more elusive and dreamlike, and we move our bodies without a clue how this happens. Lift your arm or walk across the room – the countless actions of muscles, tendons, tissue, fascia, and so on simply happen automatically. You never notice your digestive system unless something is wrong with it. Then it hurts.
When the three systems are out of balance people become physically or mentally ill. The head without feeling? Nazis such as Steven Miller or Marjorie Taylor Greene. I think it is a known trait of narcissists that they have no clue whatsoever about other people’s feelings. Feeling without thinking? Evangelical Christians come to mind, MAGA cult members, people dominated by fear of anything “other”, people who need a strong authority figure to tell them what to do and what to think/believe. Will without a heart? Many ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) would fit the profile, or prison guards at Penal Colony No. 3 in Siberia, where Aleksei Navalny perished. People who get off on action, but it has to be cruel and punitive.
I have no idea whether Artistic Therapy could help in any of these extreme cases, and I’m not sure whether there really is an increase in the number of public figures who are psychopaths. When I think of McCarthyism and what it would look like today with social media, I wonder whether anything has changed.
Contemplating Wisdom (thinking), Love (feeling), and Courage (doing) being the archetypal symbols for the threefold human organization, I decide that the one in the middle, Love, is indeed central. It unites and unifies all three.
Did you ever wonder why the heart is the universal metaphor for Love? When they want to confirm that they really mean what they say, some people intuitively put their hand over their heart. It reminds me of the Heart Chakra, one of seven subtle energy centers in the body, according to both Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. The chakra system has been taken up by Western culture, notably by Carl Gustav Jung, Joseph Campbell, and, in the United States, by the Esalen Institute.
I don’t know much about the chakra system as a whole; according to Wikipedia, the different energy centers have been associated with endocrine glands and nerve plexuses. But I have experienced that the Heart – not the physical one, but the symbolic center of Love – is a powerful force of energy which can be directed and employed for healing and regeneration. When I try to connect with trees and clouds and the groundhog that almost ate my newly-planted bean babies, that’s what I focus on. Try it, and let me know your results. Leave a comment, please.
Oh dear. That's what happens when one doesm't proofread carefully. I was born in 1946, not 20 years before William the Conqueror invaded England.
Interesting those three "pillars" and how they can operate without the presence of one of the others to bring some reasonableness, compassion to a decision. thanks Jessica.