Love Makes The World Go Round

Love Makes The World Go Round

“Love makes the world go round” is a well known phrase all around the world, but the origins are a bit murky. You hear it on the street and read it in "Alice In Wonderland." It is a song from the 1961 musical “Carnival.” And it has been recorded by The Everly Brothers, Bing Crosby, Ann-Margaret, Perry Como, Madonna, and The Power Puff Girls.

But who coined the phrase? Shakespeare? Confucius? Pliny The Elder? Wayne Newton?

Regardless of the source, the intersection of LOVE and WORLD and ROUND reveals deeply held beliefs that go way back. Do you believe what you see? Do you feel what you believe?

In medieval theology, love was thought very literally to have set the universe in motion. And though it is assumed that through the Middle Ages people thought the world was flat -- you know, in 1492 Christopher Columbus battled with the Church in order prove that the Earth was round, convinced the Queen to fund his voyage, his ships didn't fall off the horizon, yadda yadda -- that is actually a myth born in the 19th century. The great majority of scholars during Columbus' time held that we lived on a round planet. And way before that in 330 BC Aristotle estimated Earth's circumference based on physical theory and observational evidence. And 300 years before that, Pythagoras held a spherical world philosophy.

So, does love make the world go round? The Physicist might say that due to conservation of angular momentum, when a body is trapped in the gravitational field of another body that the momentum will continue until interrupted by another force. Ummm... yes... there has been evidence of that. But what does The Romantic say?  What does your heart say?

We say: Happy Valentine's Day!