I think I've got a real love thing going. I love people, I love

Hear the words of Marvin Gaye, the prophet of soul, who poured the cries and joys of humanity into music, and who once said: “I think I've got a real love thing going. I love people, I love life, and I love nature, and I can't see why other people can't be like that.” In this utterance lies the simplicity of wisdom and the challenge of eternity. For he proclaims love not as a fleeting passion, nor as a private affection, but as a way of being, an orientation of the whole soul toward the world.

When Marvin Gaye spoke of his love for people, life, and nature, he was not speaking idly. He was a man acquainted with suffering, with injustice, with inner conflict. And yet, even amid the storms of his life, he chose to speak of love as the central fire of his existence. This is no small thing. To love the world when it is kind is easy; to love it when it wounds you is the mark of strength. Thus his words carry the weight of one who had every reason to turn bitter, yet still chose to affirm life with tenderness.

History, too, knows such souls. Think of St. Francis of Assisi, who called the birds his brothers and the sun his kin, who saw in all creation the mirror of divine love. Or of Mahatma Gandhi, who faced the violence of empire with the weapon of compassion, choosing to meet hatred not with hate but with truth and mercy. Like Gaye, these figures could not understand why the world clung to anger when love stood ready to heal. They, too, bore the same question: why cannot men embrace what is most natural, most healing, most divine?

The tragedy of the human condition is that many do not see what Gaye saw. Fear, pride, and desire cloud the heart, turning men against one another and blinding them to the beauty of life and nature. Yet Gaye’s cry is both lament and challenge. He could not comprehend the refusal of others to embrace love, and in that incomprehension lies his urgency: he calls us to awaken, to remember that the most fundamental power in the world is not violence or wealth, but the simple force of love freely given.

His own music became a vessel for this teaching. Songs like What’s Going On were not mere entertainment, but pleas to his generation to love one another, to heal divisions, to honor the earth. Through his art, he sought to embody what his words declared: that love is not an abstraction, but a force to be lived, sung, and spread. In this way, Marvin Gaye joined the eternal chorus of those who have labored to turn hearts toward compassion.

The lesson for us, O seekers, is to live as he lived—to cultivate a “real love thing” in our own souls. This means not merely feeling affection, but choosing daily to act with kindness, to embrace life’s beauty, and to honor nature. It means rejecting cynicism, refusing to allow bitterness to take root, and instead letting every word and deed be guided by the power of love. Such a life may seem strange in a world hardened by conflict, but it is precisely such strangeness that the world most needs.

Therefore, take Marvin Gaye’s words as both a gift and a commandment: love people, even when they falter; love life, even when it wounds you; love nature, for it sustains you. Do not ask why others fail to do so, but rather let your own life be the answer. For in the end, the world will not be changed by scorn, but by the radiant persistence of love. And he who loves thus, as Gaye proclaimed, holds the truest power of all—the power to heal. For love is the music of eternity, and those who live it become its song.