The first time I saw Ben Rector in concert, he played a song that I soon realized I had never listened to before. It was called More Like Love, and I instantly fell in love with its beautiful lyrics. It illustrates Ben's past longings to be famous and "have his face recognized out in a crowd". These feelings are quickly replaced with the realization that he actually wants one simple thing: to "look more like love".
The chorus is as follows:
"But now I just wanna look more like love
I just wanna look more like love
This whole world is spinning crazy
And I can't quite keep up
It's the one thing around here
That we don't have quite enough of
So I just wanna look a little more
Like love"
When I first heard this song, I was in awe that someone had finally found the words to explain exactly what I aspire to be in life.
I don't want to look pretty.
I don't want to look successful.
I don't want to look smart.
I want to look like love.
I strive to radiate love, love, and more love. It's definitely not the easiest thing to do, and we often forget that our outward attitudes and the way we present ourselves around our peers can truly affect them. It's true that kindness can easily go unnoticed, but it's painfully obvious when someone gives off negative energy. A person who "looks like love" can make school or work much more tolerable, even enjoyable.
Ben continues the song with another meaningful verse:
"I find the farther that I climb
There's always another line
Of mountain tops
It's never going to stop
And the more of anything I do
The thing that always ends up true
Is getting what I want
Will never be enough"
These lyrics explain an unfortunate truth: no matter how often we get exactly what we want, it almost never feels like enough. Even though material objects, successes, and other types of life advancements give us some kind of happiness, it frequently diminishes rather quickly. Sometimes we think those things will make our stressful lives easier or happier, but this is often not the case. The solution to this madness? Love.
I want nothing more than to be the kind of person, friend, girlfriend, and classmate that this song makes me think of- someone who finds fun in the most stressful or boring days, someone who genuinely strives to make others happy, and someone who doesn't take life more seriously than it needs to be taken. Thank you, Ben Rector, for using this song to give myself (and the world) a wonderful life goal-- to look more like love.
