One Thing Everybody Wants

It's Halloween, but candy, costumes, and haunted houses are not on my mind. What's on my mind is something altogether different. What's on my mind is love.

For some reason, I thought of "La La Land" this weekend, so on my drive to work today, I listened to the soundtrack. One of my favorite songs is, of course, City of Stars, featuring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Every time I hear it, I'm struck by the perfect way in which the songwriters expressed the human condition:

City of stars
Just one thing everybody wants.
There in the bars
And through the smokescreen of the crowded restaurants––
It's love––
Yes, all we're looking for is love from someone else.
A rush,
A glance,
A touch,
A dance–– 

To look in somebody's eyes
To light up the skies
To open the world and send them reeling
A voice that says, "I'll be here,
And you'll be alright."
I don't care if I know
Just where I will go
'Cause all that I need's this crazy feeling–– 

A rat-tat-tat on my heart . . .
Think I want it to stay.

I really think that's it. That's what life is all about. We're here to feel love and to give love. I've felt this purpose more acutely in the last few years than maybe I ever had before, but boy, does it change things. It gives the world color and forces my understanding of things to be nuanced. It fills my heart with loneliness but also with gratitude.

"Love. All we're looking for is love from someone else." Such powerful words. I am resolved to remember them.


Thing I'm thankful for: a cozy place to sleep.