Love each other or perish.

"Love each other or perish."

- W.H. Auden

One of the more...poignant moments as I re-read Tuesdays With Morrie for the 2nd time. I'd read it sometime back when I was Sec 4 or J1. The train ride from my house to the army camp I work in is very long; thus explaining my sudden..."desire" to read books. I'd finished reading Mitch Albom's Have A Little Faith in just about 1 and a half days. And here I am now, pondering over his most famous and most thought-provoking - yet simply structured and written - book.

Love each other or perish. It indeed sounds profoundly fascinating and intriguing from Mitch's and Morrie's perspective, yet how sad the real truth is in today's world.

"Earn a living and be rich, or perish." It's sad how our earliest ancestors or our poorer counterparts across the globe are so much better off that us in the realm of love and happiness. The Ethiopians, desperately poor but so full of life and love, are indeed happier than many of the rich and powerful that currently dominate our world with their wealth, status and power.

In Singapore, it's rare to find a family (let alone clusters of people) that has deep familial love within. Out of the (I know it's pretty few) friends that I know, I know only one person so far who's been gifted and blessed with that. And it's wonderful. Each time I go to that person's house, I feel it - that colourful, warm, close love within the family. I feel it ever so palpably from the perspective of an outsider - it's like pixie dust or glitter, swirling around an otherwise monotonous snowman in a globe. Such love is pure, pristine, unconditional and unadulterated, born from the guidance of two great parents, graced by one great Father above. It permeates the home (not house) that they live in. Even when exchanging casual comments between themselves, I can easily feel that closeness - so much I sometimes feel a little threatened by my own intruding existence :)

Love, something so omnipotent, something so immaculate in nature. Something that, as today's people strive for perfection, wealth, status, academic acknowledgement and other materialistic and physical ideals, simply slips through their fingers, and disappears.

Perhaps only when one realises its importance in daily life; when one learns to cherish whatever little or abundant love that he/she possesses - perhaps only when one stands on the dangerous, uncertain precipice of death, whether due to old age or sickness - that the importance of love will overwhelm them in their otherwise drab and sad existence.

Love each other or perish.

It's a pity things aren't quite like that, eh Morrie? :)