To Love Somebody by Neil J Milliner

To Love Somebody

by Neil J Milliner

We all have a need to love somebody it seems.

All of us.

Every nation and every culture on this little blue dot we call Earth love in one way or another.

This could be in the form of love for a child, a love for the tribe, a love for our family.

To love somebody is a need just like any of the other basic needs we humans have: food, water, shelter, etc.

Did you know, for instance, that newborn babies can die without human touch? This is a proven scientific fact.

To love and to be loved is a basic human necessity more powerful than most of us are aware of or are even willing to admit.

Millions of dollars, nay, billions of dollars are spent each year trying to make us all more “lovable”. Think about how many companies have been created to service this need? Fashion, cosmetics, plastic surgery to name a few. How many sports cars and luxury vehicles have been sold with the intent of attracting a potential lover?

The same is spent on purchasing things for us to “love”. Mansions, yachts, jets...the list is almost endless.

How much money has the dating agencies made over the years trying to fulfill this need?

The need to love somebody is so strong that if we cannot love “somebody” then we must find a “something” to love instead. Be it a doll, a puppy or a kitten our innate need to love must find an outlet somehow.

But a “thing” to love is a poor substitute for a real somebody, isn’t it? A short term burst of hope and happiness. There is always a new doll, puppies grow up and grow old. So do kittens and all the other cute things that tug at our heartstrings.

Once upon a time it was easy to find somebody to love when families were larger and clustered closer together. There were Grandmas, Grandpas, Cousins, Brothers, Sisters and so forth. There was no shortage of somebodies to love. Not to mention all of your friends and neighbors living around the district.

These days people have drifted apart and live such isolated lives. How often do you hear of people dying and not being discovered for months or even years later? A lot of folks don’t even know their own neighbors let alone the people living across the street. Children grow up and move on, families split through divorce or arguments.

But these days there are all these poor sorry souls living alone among the hordes that need to love somebody and yet most of them have nobody to love.

They may not die as newborn babies do, but still they do die. They die inside slowly and insidiously.

Loneliness is simply an inner longing to love somebody. Love is not a Hollywood construct just to sell tickets. It is not just song lyrics or poetry. It is us. It is who we are as a human race and it is what drives us on to greatness.

Why do you get out of bed each morning? Why do you go to work and give up the best years of your lives? Reputation and public recognition? Or is it putting food on the table or clothes on your families backs and a roof over their heads?

To Love Nobody.

A strange concept isn’t it? But it made perfect sense to me at the time.

I tried to love nobody for many years.

After my second marriage failed and my children were alienated I determined “That is it! I will never love again. I will keep myself to myself, put up my walls and allow no one or nothing to hurt me this bad ever again.”

And this is exactly what I did. I lived the next 20 years almost as a hermit. I kept everybody at arm's length. I was safe. But I wasn’t happy. I existed but I never really lived.

Don’t get me wrong, I never grew to hate people or society though the thought of running away and becoming a monk was kind of appealing until I found you have to get out of bed at some ungodly hour and there was probably no internet connection.

But there was an internet connection wasn’t there?

And that is how I met my Jodi!

We met online, fell in love almost instantly. My walls came crashing down, my loneliness vanished into thin air. I was no longer safe, I was no longer a hermit. But I was happy. Truly happy! I had found my Somebody.

So here I am, three years later, on the other side of the planet, married to my beautiful Jodi and typing out this story. My wife is on another computer behind me creating amazing pieces of fractal art. But that is a whole new story in itself.

So, what is the solution for somebody who says life has no meaning or worth? What if they think there is no special “somebody” in their life?

The answer to this is an easy one. Just love everybody because everybody is a special somebody. You just haven’t uncovered their brand of special.

Yes, you too are a special somebody. Have you ever uncovered your own “special” yet? Don’t be surprised if you haven’t. Most people never do. Sometimes this drives them to the point of suicide. If they knew they were a special someone to somebody (or a lot of somebodies) I doubt many would not even think of it let alone go through with it.

To love somebody, no matter how much or how little, is the greatest act of human kindness we can possibly perform. A smile, a handshake, a compliment, even just an acknowledgment of their existence can be enough to save someone.

So thus ends my little story on “To Love Someone”

I hope my ramblings have brightened up your day and given you pause to think on things.

But mostly they have brought my word count up to the required minimum.

So cheerio for now and maybe I’ll see you in another story somewhere.