My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business

by Dick Van Dyke

The music—as good music always does—opened the door in our souls to something deep and lasting.

Was there one way? No, not as far as I could tell—other than to feel loved, to love back, and to do the things that make you feel as if your life has meaning and value, which can be as simple as making sure you spend time helping make life a little better for other people.

I agreed with his thesis that God was not an all-powerful “cosmic superman” looking down from the penthouse as much as He was Love.

If knowing, finding, and giving love were the paths to knowing God, I thought people could get there without much additional doctrine.

The broken pottery littering the ground confirmed for me that material success, although great, was not the be-all and end-all. There was more. I didn’t know the answers, but I could feel that the things that gave life meaning came from a place within and from the nurturing of values like tolerance, charity, and community.

“It means you never know what’s going to happen,” I said. “You do your best, then take your chances. Everything else is beyond our control.”