The Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate Is Love

Did you catch that Super Bowl halftime show?

Even if you're not a football fan like me, you probably watched for the commercials, the party, or the halftime show. And what a halftime show it was.

In this era of extreme division and vitriol from all corners of this country, Bad Bunny's 13-minute performance raised the collective vibration, ending with a universal truth: The only thing more powerful than hate is love.

Do you believe that?

Here's the thing—whether you realize it or not, every single human being on this planet is energetically connected. This is why we're all hurting right now. Our connection exists even when we're deeply divided.

We carry this burden of hate for our fellow humans. Some hate simply because of skin color, gender, or economic status. Others hate the haters, wanting to see them crushed, shamed, and banished.

We carry this hate and rage, and we "other" anyone who doesn't agree with us.

But hate loses power over us when we stop giving it power.

And that's what Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — a.k.a. Bad Bunny — showed us in those 13 minutes.

It was a masterclass of joy, unity, and inclusion, wrapped around strong messages of resistance and the calling out of things those in power would prefer to stay hidden. It didn't matter that the entire performance was in Spanish. Music has always been so much more than lyrics — it's energy, and you merely need to feel that energy to be moved by it.

It was like a drop of water on the Wicked Witch of the West.

And wow, did it ever spark an escalation of hate among the loudest voices on the Right.

Which tells you something important: Hate always heats up when Love enters the chat.

Hate knows it loses power when Love is present. Hate fears the energy of Love because, while hate is heavy and feels consuming, Love is far more powerful.

It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I have decided to stick to love…Hate is too great a burden to bear."

Love is levity, joy, passion, abundance, and hope.

Hate is anger, toxicity, scarcity, and fear.

I didn't waste a minute of my one wild and precious life watching the alternate performance sponsored by the hate-mongers. I already knew how that energy would feel, and I'm not here for that.

But I've heard the analysis of it, and it confirms exactly what I expected. The fact that Bad Bunny's viewership outnumbered…whatever that was…by about 70 to 1 should tell you something really important:

Despite the presence of that heavy, hateful energy surrounding us every day, it's not really that powerful after all.

So I want you to remember this as you go about your life: Even when it feels like hate will consume us, it can never compete with love.

The only thing more powerful than hate is LOVE. And LOVE always wins.