GUEST BLOG – “The Extraordinary Power of Love”

Look at the sky–it’s the color of love.”

Only Sade could come up with those words–a sweet, simple, powerful statement.  Cooing those lyrics in the “Kiss of Life”, with a sky that’s always changing, captivating and vast, her metaphor is quite fitting for love–a powerful emotion—beautiful, strange and sometimes, quite painful to experience. 

Thought if there’s one performing artist on this planet who fully comprehends the confluence and confliction, grasping the power of love, it’s the elegantly sublime, British Nigerian, Sade Adu—lead diva for the sensual rock-quartet, Sade..

“I’ve been pulled apart so many times.  I ‘ve been hurt so many times before.”  That’s what she sang to us a decade ago, when she came out with her album entitled Lover’s Rock.

It’s been 10 years since then, and now in her latest album, aptly entitled Solider of Love Sade has come full circle from 25 years ago when she first lamented forlorn heartache in the hit single “Smooth Operator”, a world-wide classic from her chart busting debut album Diamond Life…remember the spoken word intro?

He’s laughing with another girl

And playing with another heart

Placing high stakes, making hearts ache

He’s loved in seven languages

Jewel box life diamond nights and ruby lights, high in the sky

Heaven help him, when he falls

“No need to ask, he’s a smooth operator” she goes on to say in the chorus.  Ah, those were the days, the beginning of an education in the complexities of love—its betrayal and seduction, and hopefully, somewhere along the way, its transformative ability to become a gateway for redemption.

Now in her forth decade of recording, Sade long ago settled in for the long haul.  And yet she still remains fresh and inspiring, writing and singing about love as if it’s her first affair every time.  But for her, the experience, it’s more than the feeling of love—the range of emotion associated with it.  For with each changing track Sade challenges herself and her listeners to reflect on their own sense of resilience and loyalty, doing so when she asked on the Lovers Rock CD, in the song “By Your Side.”

You think I’d leave your side, baby

You know me better than that

Think I’d leave you down, when you’re down  on your knees

I wouldn’t do that

…when you’re on the outside baby, and you can’t get in

I will show you, you’re so much better than you know

Now that’s love, more than any words could say.  And isn’t that what it takes to have truly lived and loved, not shutting down and shutting out during times of despair, but holding deep in one’s heart a willingness to remain open to the opportunity and possibility of love anew? 

In Sade’s view love is synonymous with forgiveness, which can sometimes mean being there for someone who wasn’t there for you.

Is this naivety?  Or, is this a place of willful innocence?

With in one’s mind a sense of maturity, knowing that to gracefully endure, one must remain a Solider of love, which really means being a loyal defender of truth, reconciliation and heartfelt justice. 

However, in an age of political correct cynicism, some are likely to mistake such a liberal creed as being self-mutilating.  Yet instead, it’s about being both realistic, while remaining a true romantic—holding above all else the virtue of love, while solemnly acknowledging all the slippery slopes and pitfalls to be endured along the way.

Written by: Max Eternity _______________________________________