31. The Love You Take

A Beatles verse that I’ve been singing to myself a lot lately is, “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” It’s off of the song “The End” from the Abbey Road. I’ve been trying to dissect what that means.

What does it mean to take love? Is that the amount of people giving you love? Is that what you just pick up from the day to day being of yourself? And making love? What sort of making love were they talking about? Are they talking about some Al Green style making love or more like “Love me Do” style love?

I see that word, love, a lot. Most of the times I hear it in public, I don’t know if I believe people who are saying it. Especially in this political season.

Donald Trump on Iowa: "Don't worry; it's just Iowa. We love Iowa. We're going to do great in Iowa. I expect to win Iowa.”

I wonder if he had to ever set foot in the state prior to running for president. I wonder if he’s going to say one word about the state come Tuesday morning. I wonder if he’ll sing the same tune if Ted Cruz ends up beating him.

It feels so forced when prominent people use the word love in a political context. Plenty of Republicans have said that Barack Obama doesn’t love the country. I’m not sure what they mean by that. Does that mean he doesn’t love the 320 million people that live here? I doubt anybody would. Does that mean he doesn’t love the land? Eh. That’s a stretch. Does that mean he doesn’t love the Constitution? Well, first, he was a professor of Constitutional Law and second, what does it mean to love a set of rules that were drafted over 200 years ago? I don’t know if I’d say I love the Constitution, but I certainly respect it. I respect the vision our forefathers had when the put it together.

Or when people say they disagree with homosexual lifestyle, but they love gay people anyway. What does that mean? I don’t know what is really in people’s hearts, but it feels like they are saying it through gritted teeth. How would they treat that person outside of a public eye, when no one is looking?

For some reason, the only person whom I believe as being sincere when they talk about love, is Pope Francis. The man has a gentleness and a sincerity about him. I think he backs up his talk as well. Whether it’s washing the feet of prisoners or reforming the Vatican, I sincerely believes he loves his “flock.”

So, what were the Beatles trying to say about the love you take? I think it’s about giving of yourself. It’s how much you give to other people without thinking of how it will benefit yourself. This answer is kind of trite, I know, maybe I’ll come back to it. But I think the lads from Liverpool get love more than Donald Trump does.