A speech I gave Saturday, #Loveupclose

     Thank you very much for your invitation to speak at what, I cannot 

Believe is your 40^th Class reunion.  It seems like just yesterday you were 17, at Morse, in class, learning things which you may or may not have used the last forty years. 

       At first I thought, what could I say to you because you are already OLD, so you probably know everything already.  Then I thought about all of the things that are happening in 2017, especially with the political climate we are experiencing today, and said, there must be something fairly interesting to talk about.

      So I looked around my world, at my age, and tried to think about what is most important no matter what else is going on, and what I came up with was LOVE!  It is what should be constant in our lives, throughout our entire lives. I think I may know just a little bit about love since Mr. O and I will celebrate our 50^thwedding anniversary this May.

      If you are on my FB page, then you already know that I have a hashtag (previously known as a pound sign) which is #love up close.  I believe that when we really get to know someone up close and personally, it is almost impossible to hate them for who they are. We may dislike them for what they do, but up close, we always see something in them that we can love (well most people anyway.  Then I wondered, is it more difficult to love up close today than it was in l977 when you graduated.  

     I asked a question on FB ( my research base ) “What did you love during your high school years, and what do you love now?  Did love change over the years? What remained constant?

    The answers, of course, ran the gamut. Back in the day, it seems that what most people loved was sitting on the hill doing I don’t know what, (although some of you know what you were doing—rhymes with DEED). Others loved beautiful girls, playing or watching Tiger teams, hot tamales, cheerleading, having good people around them, going to TJ, ditching during lunchtime, meeting the loves of their lives, and losing a boyfriend or girlfriend that they did not need anyway. 

      What I thought most interesting was that almost everyone loved the stress free life. When you think about the things which irritated you then, you have to remember that you did not have to pay rent, buy food, or have any of the responsibilities that your parents had.  The biggest responsibility they had was taking care of you and worrying about you.  I bet you long for those days now.  

     How does the neighborhood in which you grew up compare to the neighborhood you now live in?  Is the same unity there?  Do you know all of the people in your neighborhood? Do you feel like you have a lot of things in common?  What did you get from growing up in your neighborhood that you still value?  You  probably  still have a connection to all of the people, with whom you grew up because  you shared so much history. (Sister’s visit)  As you have aged, you have seen many prosper, and others may not have had the lives they envisioned.  It still amazes me how many are no longer with us, even though we know that no day is promised to anyone.

     Many of you loved meeting the person you thought was the love of your life, but today, you are so glad that somebody stole that person from you. 

     What you loved forty years ago has changed, although some things have remained constant.  You knew then, as you know even more now, that the love of God is paramount.  He is the person who loves us even when we don’t think we deserve it.  

    The love you felt from your parents and family members, which sustained you then, still sustains you now.  Your love for everything is deeper, it thrives, and it grows.  The love you were shown, you now pass to your children and grandchildren.  You value love more now, than perhaps you did then.  You know the power of love.  You now know why your parents loved you no matter how many bad things you did because you have loved your children in the same way.  You know that “puppy love” of old, does not compare to the thriving love you now experience from your spouse (maybe), or from those around you.  The love from friends, today, is powerful, especially when those friends are those with whom you grew up.  I have always believed that “Old friends” are the best friends because of what we have shared, but there are also other friends who come into our lives later and their  love, and our love for them  can be just as strong.  

      Some (very few) said they love their job—that is one of the secrets of life—when you love what you do, it does not even seem like work.  I never thought of teaching as work, it was pure joy—loved it when I was there, and now love not being there just as well.

      What you have found out in the 40 years you have been away from Morse is that in life everything changes, stress changes, life changes, obstacles change and goals change.  Love, however does not change.  If we truly love up close, our lives would be more joyful  If we could love, even the seemingly unlovable, our lives would be more joyful.  If we can extend love to those around us, joy will come.

     The love we all shared at Morse High over forty years ago is why we are all here today.  It was that old school love, however you define it.  It was the kind of love we never called bullying—we just talked about each other and just made up . It was the kind of love that made us look beyond differences.  It was the kind of love which made us care about each other just as we do now.  It was that special TIGER LOVE!

 I challenge you to continue that Tiger love in your family, at your work-place, and with those with whom you are in contact.  I challenge you to  LOVE  up close during your next 40 years.