I am not a hippy. I know hippies, and most of them are okay, but I have an aversion to tie dye and I prefer to buy my flowers from a supermarket. Thank you very much. Also controversial opinion, but the Beatles are overrated and John Lennon’s Imagine is a terribly boring song written in the throes of a drug high. Okay, now that we’ve established my discursive stance, let’s lead on to my real point, which given the above statements may seem surprising…

 

All you need is love.

 

While that statement alone should be enough without being followed with an exhaustive column for evidence, this isn’t just some hippy concept where we need to drink from the Kool aid. Connection is vitally important to our mental health. We need to feel that we belong. Once again I have to tip my cap to te ao Māori with the broader context of whānau. Whānau is anyone you consider a supporter. Aroha isn’t just your partner or significant other (what’s an insignificant other?) but the love you have for your blood relatives, the love you have for your adoptive relatives, the love you have for that person who gave you that good advice, or that love you have for the dude that you sung that sea shanty with when you were both on the piss (hey bro). The love you have brings you all together to defeat the demogorgons and close that interdimensional portal (I’ve just finished Stranger Things and already have withdrawals). We need that. Aroha, not demogorgons, although they would be good to feed trash and meter-readers to. 

 

That’s why we have so many songs about it. Blues Brothers, Huey Lewis, Haddaway (What is Love, Baby don’t Hurt Me), Hospital of Death – they’ve all written about love. Men couldn’t handle saying they love each other when they’re with mates so we even coined the term Bromance so that it seemed homoerotic, but not homoerotic enough (think WWE not Queer Eye). Paintings have been painted in the name of love. Helen of Troy was described as the face that launched a thousand ships, not because she had the most vicious of headbutts, but because men would go to their deaths because they were so in love with her. Shakespeare wrote smutty snuff porn highlighting its power. People have protested, been beaten, and in many cases died for the right to love the people they want to love (isn’t that crazy that people have had to do that). It’s a powerful driving force that gives us our humanity.

 

What I would like to see though, is this aroha recognised in our workplaces. I’m not talking free love in the office, although if you’re into that I won’t judge. Many large organisations proudly boast their values (I’ve worked for four of these organisations), organisations that have people who love their jobs and love the mahi that they do. But recognising this as specifically aroha in an organisation’s values is largely absent. Why? Because we think it sounds too much like the hippy bull-shit I mentioned earlier? If aroha is our strength, is our humanity, let’s recognise that and hold organisations to account when they don’t act out of love. Love can be a force to drive political and structural change.

 

Just don’t call me a dreamer, or tell me I’m not the only one.

 

Call me a Love Jedi.