We're people. We have values.

So, as everyone knows from the other night, we all have different values.
According society, we value such things like money, sex, power, etc. Yes, I am sure much of society does value those things. In fact, we must for society to progress. However, as I learned in class, much of us value other things, as I believe most others do as well.
Many of the things we value and the things society values are different. So, they are in conflict. When values are in conflict, they change (at least eventually). They are challenged, pondered over, and eventually changed.
We got in some groups and decided what we thought were the most important values. My group's values were as follows: challenge, love, integrity, faith, passion, courage, and creativity. Personally my number one was love. I must agree with Chuck on this one: all you need is love. That is the truth.
I think that love governs all things. Love is the fuel behind our courage, the spark that illuminates our faith, and the push behind our passion. It is what makes us have friendship and be capable of creativity- because we "love" what we do and want to come up with more. We love ourselves to care about our health. We love others to have "helpfulness". Of course, love also produces respect. Therefore, love really does encompass anything. Coming from the Christian faith, love is the center of the universe-being God (God is love). So, love really is everything. Aside from religious views, as I have said before,love governs many of the values society cares about.
So I know I have made some pretty stretching relationships and have probably jumped around and made no sense. The fact is however, that is how much of society deals with values. They jump around trying to figure out which one they are going to follow for the day.
As for me, I try to live everyday trying to follow love. Of course, it does not always work out. Sometimes the desire for success overules my value of health or responsibility. As with anyting in life, values are something to be balanced. You can't do everything. Such is life.
Values. Have them.

Anna Goggans