Men and Women Have Love to Give is an ambient mix I assembled in October of 2008. It is full of some beautiful and sublime music by many talented artists (see tracklist below). I give this as a gift to everyone, on a day dedicated to love, and I ask you to not be afraid to love men and women!

Men and Women Have Love to Give

It's pretty obvious that men and women need love. A lot of people think that love is the most important thing there is. I'm pretty convinced that it is, but what I'm also pretty convinced of is that people (me, and others) are not spreading it around nearly enough. We demand that others love us, but how hard do we try to love others? Every day I am amazed at how disconnected we all keep ourselves from one another. Walking on the street, we don't make eye contact. We avoid someone we know. We disclose minimal personal information when we talk with others. We dismiss real face-to-face contact in favor of the BlackBerry and the iPod. I recently read about a study saying that people don't hold hands as much as they used to. Our time is so precious.

But what are we really doing with our time? Really. We all seem to be simply wandering about, doing this thing or that, seemingly on a whim, taking whatever happens to us. Loving is a chance to do something meaningful, a chance to actually do something. Something, anything! But most of us, we don't take the chance. Human beings are so afraid. We are so afraid to lose that little bit of security that we have. I am no exception. Me too, I am afraid to hurt; so afraid to love! But what a good practice it might be to put ourselves out there to lose that cherished security, to make ourselves vulnerable. A friend of mine once told me that I'm more lovable when I'm vulnerable.

What does it take to open up to love? Maybe certain men and women are not meant for each other. Maybe one person's priorities cloud the fact that they may, indeed, be right for each other. Maybe a person is only right for another person at a given place and time, a given age. Can two people ever be right for one another other? If both people are not ready to surrender to love, how can they be right for each other? "I like this and this about you, but could you please change this? Could you please be less of yourself?" I'd prefer someone be themselves even if it doesn't work out in my favor. Even if it fucking hurts.

My friend and I found a framed picture in our basement, left behind by a previous tenant. The couple in the picture, presumably on their wedding day, have a happy-go-lucky feeling about them. They couldn't seem any happier. Their well-rehearsed smiles and American-dream-fulfilled (at last!) demeanor help them to exude a fairy-tale type of love, a kind of love I never believed was real. A few years ago I had a girlfriend whose na