"More popular than Jesus." ^{_{John Lennon, 1966}}

I grew up the baby of six, in a house predominantly filled with women. 

Wonderful women. 

Women full of life and laughter.

Women who enriched my sense of what it meant to be a boy, and ultimately a man. 

‘Noticing up’ came with the territory I guess.  Literally and figuratively.  I saw beautiful women who, among so many other things, enjoyed all of the usual trappings of adolescence.

Make-up.  Fashion.  Boys.  (Yes.  We mustn’t forget the boys.  I could name them.  Each and every one.)

I adored my sisters.  And I loved my mom also.  Still do.

My sisters filled our house with music.  Record players seemed to be everywhere and so did the sounds of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.

Elton, the Beach Boys, James Taylor, Rod Stewart, disco, the Mammas and the Pappas and everything in between.  But mostly there was the Fab Four and their melodious mantras of frenzied freedom.

“All you need is love, (listen for it) …altogether now, na, nana, na na”

“Love. Love is all you need,” they chanted. 

I believed it for a very long time.  Now I call bullsh*t. 

According to Abraham Maslow, not to mention my stomach, we also need food.  We need food, water, warmth and rest.  And these are just the basic needs.  We also need safety and security, and we need to belong.  Then there is our desire to accomplish something of value, and to feel like we’ve accomplished something of value.  It would seem, that in the end, we would also like to be deeply fulfilled in our lives. 

Yet that lyric lingers in my head.