LOVE Author:Leo Buscaglia 29 of 32 people found the following review helpful: — 4.0 out of 5 stars I don't agree with everything he says, but do recommend this, July 5, 2002 — By R. Tiedemann "Sunnye" (Bellevue, NE USA) - See all my reviews — (REAL NAME) — This review is from: Love: What Life Is All About (Paperback) — Here's a call to everyone to put aside their fears and p... more »rejudices and give themselves over to love.
Our scientifically oriented society, says Buscaglia, is prejudiced against love as a power to affect the human condition. Society sees love as "supercilious, unscientific bosh." The individual must develop him- or herself to the fullest to discover and celebrate her own uniqueness. Society wrongly teaches us to value a person for what she has rather than who she is or what she does. Buscaglia sounds the battle cry for freedom -- refuse to be molded into a likeness deemed "proper" by societal codes. Rather, be free to become your own person, loving yourself and your fellowman.
Everyone should have someone in his or her life who says, "I will love you no matter what...if you fall on your face, if you do the wrong thing, if you make mistakes, if you behave like a human being -- I will love you no matter."
He's pretty hard on the educational system, saying it has stifled individuality and creativity in children. "The true fuction of the child's education should be the process of helping him to discover his uniqueness, aiding him toward its development and teaching him how to share it with others." This is where I take issue with him, having pretty well agreed up to this point. Our schools have excelled in doing that very thing to the detriment of the three R's and as a result we have college freshmen who are arrogant and disrespectful, who have never read a book and who can't spell. (I speak from personal experience in teaching college level creative writing.)
I do agree with his emphasis on honesty and truth, however, believing as I do that it is the very foundation of our society and has not been emphasized to children for much too long.
Do read this one. It's a book that will confront you and make you think. You may or may not agree with him -- or with me -- but you will enjoy analyzing his points and developing your own views on the subjects.« less
What I think I appreciated about this book was just how "down to earth" he is in his stories that he tells. I fell like I'm sitting around the table at dinner while he tells us what he knows about love.