Editorial August 8, 2016 Issue

‘What if … love?’

Scott Preller

If you’ve spent any serious amount of time just hanging out with friends, you’ve probably found yourself playing some version of the “what if” game. One of the “what if” questions that invariably gets asked is: “What if you had only one more day left on earth? How would you spend it?” Answers can sometimes be things like, “Go skydiving” or “Buy a ridiculously expensive car.”

But when people really get serious about that question, it is amazing how consistently the response has to do with finding some way to express love in an intense way. People want those they care about to know how much they love them. Interestingly, the answer tends to come out the same if you flip the question on its head: “If you knew you were going to live forever and you had to do one thing forever, what would it be?” The answer is love. Everything else would just get boring after a while.

The bottom line is, love is what matters. And here’s the thing: Love doesn’t just matter when you’re sitting around idly pondering things or when things are going well. Love is what matters when life gets really, really hard. Or scary. Or painful. Or confusing. Or depressing. Or … whatever.

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