Love has been coming up a lot in my life lately.

Podcasts, books, videos, and even conversations with friends have all seemed to touch on the need for people to love their Selves more.

I think if more people could love their Self and be happy and content (not stagnant) with who they are, then we would see a lot of the negativity in the world dissipate. The reason people don’t like or even hate others is not because of the other person, it’s because they don’t love their Selves. Because if you loved your Self, there would be no reason to allow jealousy, ignorance, misinformation, fear, or scarcity to lead to hatred of another. You may not agree with everyone. You may not like everyone. But the love for your Self and the feeling that comes from that love will not let you hate others.

Over the weekend, I caught a clip of Lynn Jones-Turpin of the Jacksonville Free Press congratulating head coach Liam Coen and offering positive feedback on the just-ended season. She took her moment not to ask a meaningless question about the game, but to give the first-year coach his flowers and a boost of confidence in what was surely a disappointing outcome for the season, despite being the best season since the 1900’s (1999).

In short, Jones-Turpin was spreading love.

When I saw the clip, I smiled. It made me happy to hear such positive words in a press conference because that rarely happens–and it felt like she genuinely cared and meant what she said.

Today, I saw a clip of Matt Barnes using his platform to address the negativity that arose from the press conference, which I appreciated. I was baffled — how could anyone find anything negative in what Lynn Jones-Turpin had said? After all, she was spreading love!

Apparently, many of her “peers” felt that her moment of positivity was not journalism. They critiqued her use of the word “awesome”. They attacked her credibility as a journalist. They did the opposite of what she was doing–they were spreading hate.

For me, the response of the reporters reflects more about them than it does about Lynn, and from what I heard her say in response to the criticism, she is not bothered one bit by the hate—a sign of loving one’s Self. I’m not going to speculate on what issues the reporters who took issue with the comments are facing, but I will say that if they truly loved themselves, they wouldn’t be threatened by Lynn Jones-Turpin’s comments and wouldn't have taken to social media to attack her.

There is plenty to be negative about in the world today--there always is if you want to find it, and this isn’t meant to dismiss the social issues that need to be addressed, but spreading hate is not the answer to fixing problems–it just adds more gasoline to the fire.

And for what it’s worth, there is also plenty to be positive about in the world today–there always is if you want to find it.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer. But, I do know the first step in whatever the answer is, is for people to start loving their Selves because you can’t spread love if you don’t love your Self first.

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See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,

JC