Remember Leo Buscaglia? I came across one of his books hidden away on my book shelf last week. Sadly, he died back in 1998, but, his books and video lectures continue to impact the lives of people around the world. His full name was Felice Leonardo Buscaglia and he was born into an Italian immigrant family that moved to the United States when he was a boy. Leo became a professor at the University of Southern California and was a popular author and lecturer. He was a big hit among students for teaching the first ever Love 1A class at the university. His talks were some of the most popular ever featured on PBS television during the 1980′s and 1990′s.
I want to share with you an excerpt from one of his lectures that caught my eye from his book, ‘Living, Loving, and Learning’:
“You can make the decision tonight to drop these crazy, self-defeating ideas, and to be all that God intended you to be, which is the least thing you can do for God. How dare you die without becoming all that you are! And you can do it by making the decision to do it. It’s as easy as that. That’s the way change occurs, and change is always possible….But I warn you that if you decide to take full responsibility for your life, it is not going to be easy, and you’re going to have to learn to risk again. Risk— the key to change.
I always tell, and write about it, and many of you heard this a thousand times, but I love it so much. It was in Love class one night when a girl said, ‘I know why I’m so despairing all the time. It’s because I want to be loved by everybody, and that’s a human impossibility. I could be the most delectable, the most delicious, the most wondrous peach in the world, and I could offer it to everybody. But there are people who are allergic to peaches. Then they may want me to be a banana.’ And so often we become a banana for other people who want peaches. What a messy fruit salad. Isn’t it all right to say to them, ‘I am sorry I cannot be a banana. I would love to be a banana if I could for you, but I am a peach.’ And you know what? If you wait long enough, you’ll find a peach lover. And then you can live your life as a peach, and you don’t have to live your life as a banana. All the lost energy it takes to be a banana, when you’re a peach!
I have thought about all the times in my own life when I tried to be something that I wasn’t just so I could be liked. But, I was always at my best when I was just being me. Maybe that has been your experience, too?
Buscaglia closes his talk with the following: “To keep you hidden, to lose you because of self-defeating ideas is to die. Don’t let that happen. Your greatest responsibility is to become everything that you are, not only for your benefit, but for mine.”
I miss Leo Buscaglia! I miss his spirit, his transparency, and the courage he showed in just being himself. Some of us are bananas and some of us are peaches. Maybe we should all relax and just be ourselves. Perhaps this is what God really wants most from us.
Cheers!
Ralph
p.s. Should Richmond’s First Baptist Church offer a class like Buscaglia’s Love 1A!
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