All You Need Is Love (and Faith)

First and foremost, thank you to all who have read my past blog posts and my book, “Homey’s Adventures.” 

I was recently talking to my best friend Sherlock, and I said: “I just had an idea for my next blog.” 

Sherlock responds in a sarcastic tone: “Okay. What did you have in mind?” 

I continued: “How about a blog centered around the Beatles song, All You Need Is Love?” 

I love Sherlock but he sometimes is a grumpy old man, and he responds: “People need more than love. They need food, water, and shelter.” 

I continued with my optimism: “I once thought that too, but faith will provide the rest.” 

At the time I was thinking about what Jesus said in the bible in Mathew 6:25-34: 

“Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. 

 I think Jesus was saying when we love God and put ourselves in the hands of God, he will take care of our needs. 

Here are the Beatles lyrics to “All You Need Is Love:”  

Love, love, love 
Love, love, love 
Love, love, love 
 

(Love, love, love) 
There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done 
(Love, love, love) 
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung 
(Love, love, love) 
Nothing you can say 
But you can learn how to play the game 
It’s easy 
 

(Love, love, love) 
Nothing you can make that can’t be made 
(Love, love, love) 
No one you can save that can’t be saved 
(Love, love, love) 
Nothing you can do 
But you can learn how to be you in time 
It’s easy 
 

All you need is love 
All you need is love 
All you need is love, love 
Love is all you need 
 

(Love, love, love) 
(Love, love, love) 
(Love, love, love) 
 

All you need is love 
All you need is love 
All you need is love, love 
Love is all you need 
 

(Love, love, love) 
Nothing you can know that isn’t known 
(Love, love, love) 
Nothing you can see that isn’t shown 
(Love, love, love) 
There’s nowhere you can be 
That isn’t where you’re meant to be 
It’s easy 
 

All you need is love 
All you need is love 
All you need is love, love 
Love is all you need 
 

All you need is love (All together now) 
All you need is love (Everybody) 
All you need is love, love 
Love is all you need 
 

Love is all you need 
(Love is all you need) 
Love is all you need 
(Love is all you need) 
Love is all you need 
(Love is all you need) 
Love is all you need 
(Love is all you need) 
 

Love is all you need 
(Love is all you need) 
Love is all you need 
(Love is all you need) 
Love is all you need 
(Love is all you need) 
Love is all you need 
(Love is all you need) 
 

Love is all you need 
(Love is all you need) 
Love is all you need 
(Love is all you need) 
Love is all you need 
(Love is all you need) 
(Love is all you need) 
(Love is all you need) 
 

(Love is all you need) Yesterday 
(Love is all you need) Oh, love is all you need 
Love is all you need (Oh yeah) 
Love is all you need (She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah) 
(She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah) 
(Love is all you need) 
(Love is all you need) 

 John Lennon of the Beatles was probably not thinking about what Jesus was saying in Mathew chapter 6. He wrote this song for the Summer of Love in 1967. Lennon loved using catchy phrases. 

Homey’s Adventures is about love and all kinds of love. Unlike English, Greek has several different words for love: 

Eros (romantic, passionate love) 

The first kind of love is Eros, named after the Greek God of fertility. 

Eros is passion, lust, and pleasure. 

The ancient Greeks considered Eros to be dangerous and frightening as it involves a “loss of control” through the primal impulse to procreate. Eros is an intense form of love that arouses romantic and sexual feelings. 

Philia (affectionate love) 

The second type of love is Philia, or friendship. 

Plato felt that physical attraction was not a necessary part of love, hence the use of the word platonic to mean, “without physical attraction.” 

Agape (selfless, universal love) 

The third is Agape, selfless universal love, such as the love for strangers, nature, or God. 

This love is unconditional, bigger than ourselves, a boundless compassion, and an infinite empathy that you extended to everyone, whether they are family members or distant strangers. 

Storge (familiar love) 

Storge is a natural form of affection experienced between family members. 

This protective, kinship-based love is common between parents and their children, and children for their parents. 

Storge can also describe a sense of patriotism toward a country or allegiance to the same team. 

Mania (obsessive love) 

When love turns to obsession, it becomes mania. 

Stalking behaviors, co-dependency, extreme jealousy, and violence are all symptoms of Mania. 

Ludus (playful love) 

The Ancient Greeks thought of ludus as a playful form of love. 

It describes the situation of having a crush and acting on it, or the affection between young lovers. 

Pragma (enduring love) 

Pragma is a love built on commitment, understanding and long-term best interests. 

It is a love that has aged, matured, and about making compromises to help the relationship work overtime, also showing patience and tolerance. 

Philautia (self-love) 

The Greeks understood that in order to care for others, we must first learn to care for ourselves. 

As Aristotle said, “All friendly feelings for others are an extension of a man’s feelings for himself.” 

I can remember countless times when I told a woman that I loved her, and she objected. I think English having one word for love results in a lot of confusion about what type of love we are talking about at the moment. Jesus commands us to love our neighbor as we do ourselves. I think he is commanding selfless love, what the Greeks called agape, and self-love, what the Greeks called philautia. 

I have now written three books and I can honestly say that all the Greek concepts of love are in those books. I have committed myself to loving God and all his children as I do myself. My mania is loving my neighbor as I do myself. So, I like the sentiment of the Beatles song even though we may not be talking about the same thing. 

I encourage you to go to my website, www.homeysadventures.com. You can read the first two chapters for free, and you can also purchase it. Or you can purchase it from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other fine retailers. Just search for it using the words: Homey’s Adventures by Jim Wish. 

If you liked this blog post, please click on the like button at the bottom of this page. If you Love my work, then please donate to my future writing: 

I liken myself to the Vienna Violinist described in chapter 5 of my second book, Homey Adventures Too. I play (write) for your enjoyment and mine. Please enjoy the Christmas season and God bless you all!