Love, right?

We are hard wired to believe love is what we learn growing up.

If someone feeds us, clothes us, teaches us right from wrong and is there for us to go home to, they must love us. Right?

Probably true, but that individual can only teach us what it knows, so if anyone screws up along the line, the legacy can be passed on in all kinds of convoluted ways.

We grow up with a voice in our head that says all kinds of things and we take it to heart because it comes from  --  Love.

I mean no one who loves us would intentionally give us bad advice. Right?

The trouble is we internalize that advice whether it is good or bad, because we don't know the difference when we are growing up. We are children! We are vulnerable and unformed and blank little slates just waiting to be filled in. Right?

Well, yes and no, but the problem is nature, who seems to realize that our best chances of growing up alive are if we conform and obey and learn from those caring for us. If mother says run. We run. If she says eat. We eat. If she says we aren't pretty if we think we are -- then how will we ever know if we are pretty or not?

Love is a voice that must be edited after a certain age. If it is not, the world's mental and emotional health is at risk of turning into a bizarre game of telephone.