If Love and Hate Could Talk
When I was growing up, I remember seeing cartoons where one of the main characters had a little devil on one shoulder and a little angel on the other.
You probably remember that picture too.
The angel was usually trying to get the person to do what was right. Be kind. Tell the truth. Help someone. Make the better choice.
The devil, on the other hand, was usually a mischievous little rascal. He was always ready to stir up trouble and make the wrong thing sound like fun, or a good idea.
It was a simple picture, but we understood it.
Even as children, we understood that there is a choice inside us. One part of us knows what is right, and another part of us wants to do what feels good in the moment, even when it is not right.
That is not just a cartoon idea. You and I both know that is human life.
We may not picture a little angel and a little devil sitting on our shoulders, but most of us know what it feels like to be pulled in two directions.
Someone says something sharp, and you feel a sharp answer rising up inside you.
Someone cuts you off in traffic, and for a moment your whole attitude changes.
Someone treats you with disrespect, and suddenly the thought comes: “Why should I be kind to them?”
That is where love and hate begin to feel like more than ideas.
They begin to feel like voices.
Not actual voices, of course. I am not saying love and hate are little people sitting beside us. But sometimes a picture helps us understand something that is already happening inside us.
That is why you will see two little characters show up throughout this site.
Their names are Love and Hate. You won't be able to miss them because their names are right there on their shirts.
No, they are not real people. They are not meant to represent any particular reader. They are simply a visual way of showing the same kind of choice people have understood for a long time.
The old picture was the angel and the devil.
Here, the picture is Love and Hate.
Because that is really what this whole mission keeps coming back to.
Which one are we listening to?
Which one are we spreading?
On the home page, I talk about hate being like weeds. That thought shows up again and again throughout these posts because I believe it gets to the root of the problem.
Hate does not just sit still.
Like weeds, it spreads when it is not dealt with.
And I do not think we have to look very far to see it.
The world feels different than it did when I was a kid. I know every generation probably says something like that, but I still believe it is true.
There was hate back then too. There were rude people. There were selfish people. There were arguments, broken homes, cruel words, and plenty of things that should not have been there.
I am not pretending the past was perfect.
But in many places, there did seem to be a stronger sense of community. Neighbors knew each other. People looked out for each other. Children were often raised by more than just the people inside their own house. A neighbor might correct you, help you, feed you, watch out for you, or know your family well enough to care what happened to you.
Today, in many places, neighbors are often just people who live nearby.
You may wave. You may say hello. You may recognize the car in the driveway.
But that does not mean you know them.
And in some cases, people do not feel like neighbors at all. They feel like strangers. Sometimes they even feel like people to be guarded against.
That is not just a change in neighborhoods.
That is a change in how people feel around each other.
When hate spreads long enough, it does not only show up in loud arguments or ugly headlines. It starts changing the atmosphere of ordinary life. A home can become tense. A conversation can become guarded. A neighborhood can become a row of houses filled with people who barely know each other anymore.
That is why this mission matters to me.
I do not like the direction things are going in this world today.
I do not like seeing kindness treated as weakness. I do not like seeing cruelty passed off as humor. I do not like seeing people become colder and then call it strength. And I really do not like seeing a world where people are so used to hate that they barely notice it anymore.
If you feel the same way, then maybe this site is for you.
Because Spreading The Luv is not just about saying nice things.
It is about interrupting the spread of hate.
It is about choosing to become the kind of person this world needs more of.
It is a little like the movie Pay It Forward, except the point is not to love three people and stop there. The point is to let love become part of how we live, in ordinary moments, with ordinary people, even when those people are not always easy to love.
Maybe especially then.
Because hateful people often need love more than anyone, even if they make it hard to give.
But let’s come back to Love and Hate.
As you read these posts, you may see those two characters standing in a scene, sitting on a tree branch, riding in a car, or making a comment about what is happening.
Sometimes Hate may say what anger wants to say.
Sometimes Love may say what our better self needs to hear.
And sometimes, they may simply help make the point easier to see.
Maybe the easiest way to understand this is to see it in ordinary moments.
Because if Love and Hate could talk, they would probably show up in the kinds of situations we face every day.
Because if love and hate could talk, I think Hate would often sound more reasonable than we expect.
Hate would not usually walk up and say, “Go be cruel.” That would be too obvious.
Hate is sneakier than that.
It may say, “You have every right to be this way.”
It may say, “They deserve it.”
It may say, “Don’t let anyone think you are weak.”
It may say, “Why should you care?”
And in the wrong moment, when we are tired or hurt or fed up, that can sound pretty convincing.
Love sounds different.
Love does not always tell us what our pride wants to hear. Love may not hand us the perfect comeback. Love may not let us enjoy our bitterness as long as we want to.
But Love is not weak.
Love may tell us to pause before we answer. It may tell us to be firm without being cruel. It may tell us to walk away instead of adding more ugliness to the moment. It may remind us that we can stand up for ourselves without becoming hateful ourselves.
That is an important difference.
Because love does not mean accepting abuse. It does not mean pretending wrong is right. It does not mean letting people walk all over you.
Love can say no.
Love can draw a line.
Love can protect peace.
But Love does not have to become Hate in order to be strong.
That is one of the reasons these characters may be helpful.
They give us a simple way to picture the choice before the choice.
The moment before the words come out.
The moment before the attitude takes over.
The moment before we pass along the same kind of ugliness we say we hate.
And maybe that is where real change begins.
Not with the whole world changing at once. Not with everyone else finally becoming kind. Not with society suddenly deciding to turn itself around.
Maybe it begins when you and I notice what is happening inside us before it comes out of us.
Maybe it begins when we hear Hate trying to speak and decide Love gets the final word instead.
That is why these little characters will become part of this journey.
Not because they are the point.
They are not.
The point is what they help us see.
We are all spreading something.
And if love and hate could talk, I think they would both have plenty to say.
The question is, which one are we going to listen to?
A Final Thought
That is what Love and Hate are here to help us notice.
Not just what happens after we speak.
Not just what happens after we react.
But the moment before.
The moment when resentment starts sounding reasonable.
The moment when kindness feels harder than it should.
The moment when we get to decide which voice is going to have the final word.
That is where the choice begins.
So as you keep reading, pay attention to them.
Love and Hate may be small characters on a page, but the choice they represent is very real.
Which one are you going to listen to?
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