IF    Joni Mitchell’s adaptation of a poem by Rudyard Kipling

If you can wait
And not get tired of waiting
And when lied about
Stand tall
Don’t deal in lies
And when hated
Don’t give in to hating back
Don’t need to look so good
Don’t need to talk too wise.

If you can dream
And not make dreams your master
If you can think
And not make intellect your game
If you can meet
With triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same

If you can force your heart
And nerve and sinew
To serve you
After all of them are gone
And so hold on
When there is nothing in you
Nothing but the will
That’s telling you to hold on!

If you can fill the journey
Of a minute
With sixty seconds worth of wonder and delight
Then the Earth is yours
And Everything that’s in it
But more than that
I know
You’ll be alright
You’ll be alright

* * * * * *

Sonnet 116  by William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov’d,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.

* * * * * *

A Red, Red Rose  by Robert Burns

O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.

* * * * * *

Who Knows How To Make Love Stay?  by Tom Robbins

Albert Camus wrote that the only serious question is whether to kill yourself or not.
Tom Robbins wrote that the only serious question is whether time has a beginning and an end.
Camus clearly got up on the wrong side of the bed, and Robbins must have forgotten to set the alarm.
There is only one serious question.  And that is: Who knows how to make love stay?
Answer me that and I will tell you whether or not to kill yourself.

Answer me that and I will ease your mind about the beginning and the end of time.
Answer me that and I will reveal to you the purpose of the moon.

* * * * * *

Ice Cream  by Timothy Watson & Timothy Wild as sung by Sarah McLachlan

Your love Is better than ice cream.
Better than anything else that I’ve tried
And your love Is better than ice cream
Everyone here knows how to cry

And it’s a long way down,
Down to the place where we started from.

Your love Is better than chocolate
Better than anything else that I’ve tried
And your love is better than chocolate.
Everyone here knows how to fight

And it’s a long way down,
Down to the place where we started from.

* * * * * *

Our Deepest Fear  by Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?

And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we’re liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

* * * * * *

Jimmy Durante sang the Compton & Green song “Make Someone Happy”

Make someone happy,
Make just one heart the heart you sing to.
One smile that cheers you,
One face that lights when it nears you,

Fame if you win it,
Comes and goes in a minute.
Where’s the real stuff in life to cling to?
Love is the answer,
Someone to love is the answer.

Make someone happy,
Make just one someone happy,
And you will be happy, too.

* * * * * *

Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges, published in 2009.

(I paraphrase) Whose words do we heed: the grandiose rants of a dictator or the gentle reminders that call us back to the human?   Those who mask their feelings behind the façade of power and illusion fear most those who speak in the language of love.  Love constantly rises up to remind a wayward society of what is real and what is illusion.