Like a bolt from the blue, the arrow of cupid, piercing deeply LOVE strikes!
How profound LOVE is! When genuinely felt and lived, our natural human “love-ability” can make a big impact for positive change in people’s lives and relationships across the world. But often it can also be unwieldy, unconventional, and remarkably unpredictable. For these reasons alone, it’s no surprise that some develop a nervous aversion around their approach to love. Many consider it appropriate only for specific situations, or avoid it altogether.
What the Deep Level Love project is about, very simply, is bringing focus back to this incredible, very-human topic, and reintroducing a vital understanding of LOVE that’s practical, natural, and extremely important. And very much needed today, if you hadn't noticed!
As I introduce the story behind the Super-Love-Symbol to you, and dive deeper into the levels of love, I’d first like to explain something you’ve probably already noticed—how I often spell LOVE in “all caps.” LOVE deserves to stand out, and be noticed! It’s worth exclaiming too(!), as often as it gets ignored. (I’d also like to add, if you’ve never been “in love,” keep trying! It’s life’s best experience, and I see no reason anyone should have to miss out on it in this big world. LOVE is perfectly human—we’re all born with it).
But the full expression of universal LOVE runs wider than the varieties of romantic entanglements, sexual escapades, and familial bonds that society typically tells us is “love.” On a much greater, and no less significant scale, I view LOVE also as our number #1 most freely available, abundant, powerful, and valuable natural resource. However, to our collective loss, it’s also the most neglected and under-used. News headlines display the tragic consequences of lovelessness occurring everywhere, every day.
Yet, despite those who might argue against this endorsement of LOVE's positive influence as being an extreme or exaggerated viewpoint, I would suspect at this moment they are all enjoying a form of profound love right now, and may not even know it.
Why would I suggest this?
LOVE is shown in so-many ways to be foundational to human life and happiness, and fundamental to all we care about and everything we create. Putting a little bit of love into what we do is our primary emotional drive to even do ANYTHING! It gives the best positive meaning to life and being-human.
LOVE also operates our built-in basic instinct for self-preservation and survival, helping set heathy and functional boundaries for the protection of our wonderful selves.
LOVE is a particularly necessary ingredient to every non-romantic relationship we form, whether social, professional, or even to our environment. And it all comes naturally to us: Humans are made to connect and express LOVE. People need other people. This isn’t coming from a pre-printed greeting card, this is science!
LOVE is always operating in us behind the scenes, coloring our moments and movements, influencing every thought, choice, and friendship we make, and the kinships we bear. It allows the kindness we’re capable of offering to the random stranger we meet.
LOVE, deep in us, is the basis of all happiness. Only where LOVE is, do giggles exist.
LOVE is so much more than the masquerading concoctions foisted on us by superficial Hollywood storytellers, steamy romantic novels, or the syrupy valentines we’ve grown conditioned to associate with love in our minds. Like artificial sweeteners, these distracting substitutes for genuine LOVE, and a shade concealing the warm light that LOVE can be in reality.
LOVE is serious stuff, and genuinely needed more now than ever on this planet of ours. LOVE IS indeed at the very heart of every matter we face.
But at first, I wasn’t so clued into all of this...
Like many people, I thought I’d figured-out just enough on the subject to get by. After the heart-wrenching trial & error period of growing-up, I eventually learned the first step to really understanding LOVE, and how this understanding connects to the vast array of its expression in life, was that it goes way beyond “feelings.” It’s seeing how it really has everything to do with the sense of CONNECTION. Nothing could be more natural. Humans are built for connecting with one another.
This is the ultimate aim of the "Super-Love-Symbol," to remind each of us of the amazing power of connection built into the simple declaration “I love you!” expressing the value of LOVE to YOU and the world. It’s the best subject/verb/object statement ever devised!
The next step is to always follow where love then leads us. This becomes the true ongoing love story of our lives. Can you sense it happening?
Introducing The Super-Love-Symbol to the World!
The tale of the Super-Love-Symbol begins one day in 2012, as I was glancing through an old art & design sketchbook of mine from long ago. On one page, a tiny shape in particular struck me by its simple elegance. I had drawn a neatly self-contained pattern of a modest letter “i” striking upwards from the top of a standard heart symbol, with a third element—a big “U”—embracing them both in a warm hug. The fun notion to put my artistic skills to good use then prompted the transformation of the small rough doodle into a properly rendered graphic.
As the image developed, it took on a commanding form, proclaiming the important message of LOVE in a bold iconic way. I loved how the significance of “I love you” stood out in this uniquely straightforward design—it felt to me like an instant classic was born!
The more I contemplated “I HEART U” this way, I figured the chances were pretty good that other people might feel the same happy feelings about it too. This motivated me to use the symbol in creating little gifts and cards for friends & family, as reminders that they were loved.
Before I knew it, bold aspiration arose once again, enticing my imagination to consider the possibility that someday the Super-Love-Symbol could be BIG! Big enough to inspire the whole world, as the peace-sign ☮ or smiley-face 🙂 did in the 20th century!
I then fell in LOVE . . . with this idea of the impact it could make. Why? Because I saw the potential of the SLS to be a helpful device in bringing people together around a message of hope, healing, and positive change. After all, hope is vital to life, and nothing is more hopeful or healing today than a positive human message of LOVE, in a world grown sick for the lack of it.
The Project develops with Deep Level LOVE
By 2015 all these profound ideas of LOVE had bounced around enough in my heart and head for two years, energizing me to finally get working to share this vision to the world. Something needed to happen, and I realized it was up to me to get it going.
While researching the market for all the informational “love” resources I could use, I found little more on the subject than academic professionals speaking of love as a topic of romantic, sexual, neurobiological, or religious study. It seemed treated as an impersonal abstraction, objectified by scholars, or reduced to a focus on "romance," or a therapeutic set of conditions only benefiting two people. Worthy topics all, but no expert definition of LOVE was reached, nor description found to better understand how valuable it is in a general social context, unless tied to lofty spiritual beliefs.
Where were discussions that treated LOVE as a comprehensive, natural, and practical philosophy anyone could embrace, from the atheist to the religious believer? How can we appreciate how vital LOVE is as a principle and practice of daily life, unless someone spells it out?
While endeavoring to develop a worthy resource companion to the message of the Super-Love-Symbol, I landed on the name "Deep Level Love" for this new project. It felt down-to-earth, and honest for what it was—so I purchased the domain, got a business license, and enthusiastically created a first foothold on the internet, with the original version of “deeplevellove.com.” I was now officially in business promoting the SLS, and conveying the complimentary essence of our human love-ability!
Simultaneously, the first ventures into social media were made on the major accounts, and hashtags #DEEPLEVELLOVE and #SUPERLOVESYMBOL soon became a thing. I applied my graphic design know-how to build a library of inspirational memes, experimenting with different ways to communicate LOVE's beneficial message on the small scale of tweets and semi-daily postings.
Meanwhile, faced with a tedious ongoing search for affordable T-shirt makers, I was extremely thrilled at least to get some prototype stickers made and in hand, thanks to some kind friends with a high-end printing press who refused to take any payment. These were soon found stuck to various places, and people.
The first real production item I had made-to-order were chrome and cloisonne pins & charms. The day they finally arrived to my door, I was so filled with the awesome excitement of beholding my Super-Love-Symbol design in gleaming physical 3D manifestation for the first time, that I became awkwardly paralyzed. I could only stare in breathless anticipation at the wonder of the unopened box in my hands. It wasn't until the following day that I collected myself to finally unpack it—which I did like a kid opening a birthday present—accepting the honor that this was becoming real. I was truly exhilarated!
Another happy highlight came later that year, after consulting with a craftsman jeweler. I personally undertook a secret mission for my lovely fiancée’s birthday, surprising her with the ultimate SUPER-LOVE reminder: a beautiful one-of-a-kind custom-made SLS pendant, golden and glittering with a vibrant garnet heart, with a bright diamond to dot the “i” of my heartfelt affection!
Progress seemed to be going smoothly, as more avenues were open to discuss LOVE and share the Super-Love-Symbol.
A Turning Point
But my ongoing story wouldn’t be complete without including a bit about how life intervened with typical insistence to disrupt everything; while also adding mention of how much of a surprising failure my early efforts turned out to be.
Social media followers grew at a snail's pace, and while friends offered a measure of interest and approval, many ignored me entirely. I grew discouraged that my message wasn’t connecting, and I knew I needed a better showcase for the SLS than my basic website. And to add to it all, I also got laid-off from my job.
At the same time, in better news, I became a married man for the second time, joining a blended family scene, and devoting a few more years of parenting to the already 25 years I had dedicated to my own children. We soon added a joyful new puppy to our home, were saddened by the grief of a tragic death in the family, and then after all that, of all things, decided to go into business and open up a new restaurant. Since owning a restaurant, I soon learned, demands nearly 24/7 attention, this wild new schedule was to put a significant backburner placement of Deep Level Love, for nearly four years!
I still thought about Deep Level Love every day (and still do!). Getting over my initial disappointment, my resolve remained, and I saw this as a test of determination, worthy of effort. I’ve never given up on LOVE or failed to turn where my heart led me, and this was one big project I felt I must say "yes" to. This was a culmination of a lifetime of lessons learned and educational discovery, being a student of many schools, and finally an educator himself. It all follows years spent living life to its fullest, traveling, relishing experiences, reading, and seeking understanding of human culture with the open heart and intellectual honesty of an open-eyed artist. Always wanting to give back and support people felt like a natural responsibility. I pondered how could I craft a clear and compelling message? LOVE deserved to go viral!
The longer I chased the mystery of understanding LOVE, the deeper the lessons permeated, and the vision expanded even more. As I thought about LOVE each day, I also began to write, since the ideas for a book evolved. As an artist, educator, healthcare worker, and recently a restauranteur, I’ve had lots of experience with people and their basic needs. Due to my somewhat studious, creative, nerdy nature, combined with an innate interest in nearly everything, I decided no less was required than to give examination to every aspect of our human LOVE experience, and report on all the biological, psychological, historical, and sociological components, putting together the relevant pieces, to hopefully reach a better understanding of it all in conclusion. Over a decade has been spent researching a multitude of LOVE perspectives, and exploring every facet of study I could find.
In 2019 we ended up selling the restaurant, and I finally had time to search for and find a professional web designer to replace my first DLL website. This helped me launch a big, full-scale version, complete with an online store for selling "SLS" branded items I was now officially calling "Reminders," reminding everyone that we are indeed loved! (In August 2023 I built the newest 3.0 version myself, with Reminders now being available either on the new web store, by writing me, or sold through third parties at deep-level-love.creator-spring.com/ ).
There's no telling what the future holds, but exploring every way available for reaching as wide an audience as I can seems an appropriate way to fulfill love's mandate. Completing the book, and developing a community of like-minded hearts around the world who continue sharing the message of the Super-Love-Symbol feels like the next step in this love story.
The Quantum Love Theory: following nature’s pattern of connection
The book will also introduce a special way to look at LOVE I believe is very beneficial, which I’m very excited to share. I’ll outline it here, but will include more in future blogs, specific to the book and the topic of “quantum LOVE.”
I’ll always remember as a kid in 5th grade being taught about the atom. It fascinated me to learn how positive charges normally repel each other, but somehow the nucleus of an atom was connected by a strong mysterious force keeping it’s densely-packed bundle of positively-charged protons held together.
I became even more fascinated by the ways our brains operate by another equally strong and mysterious natural force of consciousness. Also, it did not escape my notice that common scientific terms and expressions of love are often used interchangeably, e.g. attraction, chemistry, bonding, etc., considering this a significant correlation of something beyond just analogy.
LOVE is certainly regarded, even if just in theory, as a superior quality of life, if not the ideal, and something we inherently gravitate to (there’s another science term!). It’s the inspirational muse of artists, poets, and philosophers, and subject of our most favorite stories. Whether dramas or comedies, romance is always popular. These tales get especially exciting when things veer sideways and get out of hand, indicative of the dramatic and impulsive power behind the sometimes wild energy of LOVE!
But what kind of “energy” is LOVE exactly?
As the forthcoming book Deep Level Love will explore in detail, I became aware of an observable pattern of nature holding everything together, which I saw connected with the basic pattern of our human LOVE experience: attraction allows connection, leading to bonding and the cause of creative growth, i.e. reproduction, which always transforms the world in various, and often substantial, ways.
Along with chapters which investigate the various levels of psychological, biological, historical, and cultural love, the book will add a special angle with a quantum mechanical spin, and explore how love is the essential power of connection, growth, and transformation in the way the cosmos operates, and how we can work with this grand symphony of universal power.
That these patterns should correspond, from the largest universal scale down to the individual organism, it would make obvious sense, as nature loves to repeat essential patterns, altering them to fit where needed. After all, whether physical matter, or the conscious energy of life, it's all perpetuated by a formulaic function of design that puts energy into form. Whether in the quantum world of physics, or the biology of humans, we can always measure some order out of the chaos of unknowing, in the ways we observe established patterns.
If LOVE really is our most inspirational, and motivational means of positive change in life, it would also seem logical that this complex “feeling” of love could be more than just an emotionally generated quirk of the body. Similar to our innate sensory networks and instinctual perceptive skills which attune us to our physical environment, suppose the feeling of LOVE is the basis of our quantum energy connection to the foundation of existence, much as the force holding the atomic nucleus does? What could be more natural?
I believe this is the lesson the great "I-LOVE-Universe" effortlessly and continually delivers to us each day by example: the brilliant proposition that within each breath and heartbeat propelling us ever further into life, LOVE is always here for us, if we would just join the dance. Besides being fun and fulfilling, it's less effort than we might think, knowing that every bit of our LOVE we ever "donate" back into the universal fund, is matched 100% if not exponentially!
I fully expect this to be a future discovery in anthropological, biologic research and quantum science. Our human experience of LOVE is simply and practically a reflection of the same basic pattern/process across the universe, lived through our emotions. You can treat this, or not, with mystical/spiritual significance (there certainly is a “magical” and SUPER-natural quality about LOVE to be sure) if that’s what your belief system supports. I have no doubt countless ancient people have honored such wisdom with the same veneration.
Or one can simply rest in the contentment of knowing that there is something we can satisfactorily call “love” in the way the universe operates, on a quantum subatomic level. If the ofttimes explosive strength of our emotional response to being in-LOVE is any indication, our neurological network is exquisitely primed to tap into this great power.
If we would care enough to break out of our conventional mindsets, shake off the cultural conditioning, and pay closer attention to our feelings, we could see how LOVE makes all the difference in connecting with people, ideas, our health, our bodies, and minds. It provides the emotional zest to mental concepts for driving our most courageous actions, creating the best outcomes that benefit everyone. LOVE makes us better, so let’s use it!
The last 400 years have been remarkable how far we've advanced. The exponential growth of technology in the last 150 years has been ridiculous! Our big brains have gotten us this far—to a relatively precarious stage of human evolution (full of modern conveniences in a consumer utopia)— but it's now evident how much we need loving hearts guiding us on to the next important stage of our history.
Today is the right time for us all to bravely embrace our LOVE on this planet, and lift each other up – because it feels more like we’re quickly running out of time. LOVE is the remedy we need for what ails us. It’s NOW or never. It's deep in our human nature, and all around us, just waiting for connection to transform the world by its expression.
We need only seek LOVE on a deeper level inside of us, where I believe the wonderful power of all healing, connection, and creativity lives, and where we all truly belong.
Will you please help get the word out?
Will you help me spread this vital message?
What act of LOVE will YOU commit to today???
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