Still the Greatest Love of All
A few months back, I heard a song that I hated as a kid. I mean, I couldn't stand it. To the ears of a twelve year old, it was like nails on a chalkboard, a song to be instantly switched before the second piano note of its intro. But when I heard this track again as a 38-year old man, it was like hearing it for the very first time. Sure, the background music still bordered on schmaltzy, a typically over-the-top arrangement indicative of its roots in mid-80's musical excesses. But those lyrics. So much truth. And that voice. I couldn't resist giving it another listen.
Hearing it again after many years, at this particular time in my life, I felt as if I had made a brand new discovery. I was ready to listen to the words, and more than ready to be inspired by them.
That song was Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All".
As news of her death swept like wildfire today, I immediately went back to this song. Never mind the others, though many of her other hits had a far greater impact during my earlier years. This one would be her legacy, at least in my mind.
It was a simple song. But isn't the truth always simple?
After all, the very idea that we must learn to love ourselves before we can actually love anyone else seems like one of those well-worn cliches pulled right from the pages of a self-help novel authored by the latest supposedly-spiritually-enlightented guru of the hour. But look a little deeper at any cliche and you will find an element of truth there, sparkling away like a real, honest-to-goodness diamond amongst a sea of fakes.
This song contains many of those truthful elements. One listen to some of the lines bears this out.
Who among us has not taken part in that search? The search for love, for acceptance, for comfort. For something outside of ourselves to make sense of the emptiness we feel inside. We can search for years, lifetimes even. This is a universal suffering. In ways that I cannot fully explain, hearing this song again helped me see clearly how I have done this in my own life, and how fruitless that search had become.
This ballad was no longer to be turned off immediately and discarded like yesterday's news. Instead, it had become a song to pay close attention to.
There is no irony lost that Whitney Houston sang those beautiful words of truth, only to succomb in her private life to what she had described as her "own demons", her own personal search for meaning. Ironic maybe, but after all, it wasn't her job to live those words. Whether she did so or not was her own thing to wrestle with. No, her job was to deliver them with that masterful voice, in a way that would get the point across loud and clear. She was only the messenger, her tremendous voice a vehicle for all of us to find that truth for ourselves.
With that single song, she used her immense natural talent to tap into what can only be considered a single, universal truth. In doing so, she accepted her role and played it brilliantly. She shared her gifts. Whether she was 48 or 88 at the time she left the earth seems completely irrelevant in this light. Again, there is truth here. It's not how many years we have, but what we do with them that counts.
At the end of the day, words are just words until we give them meaning. We can hear a million beautiful songs, but when we sift them all away, the only ones left behind are the ones that touched our hearts the deepest. Perhaps this explains why all these years after its release, a song like "Greatest Love of All" has such a fresh, new poignancy for me.
Back in the day, it had no meaning for young Paul. But now, the adult version of that boy had discovered a new meaning simply by listening with a fresh pair of ears. It was just time to hear the message is all. What's more, it was time to begin feeling and comprehending its meaning in my own life.
Schmaltzy ballad or not, love it or hate it, the message is simple and clear. The truth is, the truth is always true, whether Whitney said so or not.
But lest we forget the truth, well, this track has that base covered, too. It's right there in the last line, a rousing finish to send us on our way with unbridled hope.
Hearing it again after many years, at this particular time in my life, I felt as if I had made a brand new discovery. I was ready to listen to the words, and more than ready to be inspired by them.
That song was Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All".
As news of her death swept like wildfire today, I immediately went back to this song. Never mind the others, though many of her other hits had a far greater impact during my earlier years. This one would be her legacy, at least in my mind.
It was a simple song. But isn't the truth always simple?
After all, the very idea that we must learn to love ourselves before we can actually love anyone else seems like one of those well-worn cliches pulled right from the pages of a self-help novel authored by the latest supposedly-spiritually-enlightented guru of the hour. But look a little deeper at any cliche and you will find an element of truth there, sparkling away like a real, honest-to-goodness diamond amongst a sea of fakes.
This song contains many of those truthful elements. One listen to some of the lines bears this out.
"Everybody's searching for a hero, people need someone to look up to.
I never found anyone who fulfilled my needs.
A lonely place to be, and so I learned to depend on me.
I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows.
If I fail, if I succeed, at least I lived as I believed.
No matter what they take from me, they can't take away my dignity."
Who among us has not taken part in that search? The search for love, for acceptance, for comfort. For something outside of ourselves to make sense of the emptiness we feel inside. We can search for years, lifetimes even. This is a universal suffering. In ways that I cannot fully explain, hearing this song again helped me see clearly how I have done this in my own life, and how fruitless that search had become.
This ballad was no longer to be turned off immediately and discarded like yesterday's news. Instead, it had become a song to pay close attention to.
There is no irony lost that Whitney Houston sang those beautiful words of truth, only to succomb in her private life to what she had described as her "own demons", her own personal search for meaning. Ironic maybe, but after all, it wasn't her job to live those words. Whether she did so or not was her own thing to wrestle with. No, her job was to deliver them with that masterful voice, in a way that would get the point across loud and clear. She was only the messenger, her tremendous voice a vehicle for all of us to find that truth for ourselves.
With that single song, she used her immense natural talent to tap into what can only be considered a single, universal truth. In doing so, she accepted her role and played it brilliantly. She shared her gifts. Whether she was 48 or 88 at the time she left the earth seems completely irrelevant in this light. Again, there is truth here. It's not how many years we have, but what we do with them that counts.
At the end of the day, words are just words until we give them meaning. We can hear a million beautiful songs, but when we sift them all away, the only ones left behind are the ones that touched our hearts the deepest. Perhaps this explains why all these years after its release, a song like "Greatest Love of All" has such a fresh, new poignancy for me.
Back in the day, it had no meaning for young Paul. But now, the adult version of that boy had discovered a new meaning simply by listening with a fresh pair of ears. It was just time to hear the message is all. What's more, it was time to begin feeling and comprehending its meaning in my own life.
Schmaltzy ballad or not, love it or hate it, the message is simple and clear. The truth is, the truth is always true, whether Whitney said so or not.
But lest we forget the truth, well, this track has that base covered, too. It's right there in the last line, a rousing finish to send us on our way with unbridled hope.
"And if by chance, that special place that you've been dreaming of,
Leads you to a lonely place, find your strength in loooove."
Not just any old love. Oh, no. The Greatest Love of All. A love so important that her voice lingers elegantly on it for what seems to be forever, leaving one final, indelible impression at song's end. It's the love right there inside of us, the same one Whitney also sang about being easy to achieve. The very lesson that once learned, will bear the most fruit of them all.
If learning to love yourself isn't the greatest love of all, then I'm not sure what is. In fact, it's hard for me to argue with anything in this song, except maybe the "easy to achieve" part.
And for those difficult times, the times when learning to love yourself can seem like the hardest lesson of all, we will always have these words of truth, delivered with unforgettable power by one of the Greatest Voices of All.
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