Try Love

Website Information

2009-05-06T12:30:00.001-07:00

I own the domain try-love.info If anyone wants me to renew it come this June, let me know now, otherwise I am going to cancel it.

Send me an e-mail to derek [At] derekslenk [dotcom]

Try Love Book

2008-03-11T19:04:00.000-07:00

Try Love Book.

T-Shirts

2008-03-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

Check the Facebook group and e-mail Aiden with T-Shirt requests.

Risen Again

2008-03-04T12:57:00.001-08:00

Well guys, due to Facebook the movement is starting up again. In that case, in the next couple of days, I will be moving this to my more stable, anonymously hosted server, just so the identity of us original 4 stays better hidden. You original 4 from Holland, contact me, I have us @try-love.info e-mail addresses.

Peace guys, keep up the love!

What has happened?

2008-03-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

Most of you have come here from the Facebook group that has been created, and to you I say Welcome. To those of you who have come from other places, I also welcome you. These past few months have been quite silent on our part, we have been busy. I would like to apologize for not keeping you all up to date. This is what I am here to do now.

First off, I want to thank everyone who has been talking about this and spreading our message. This isn't just OUR message, but yours as well. Like we said before, the world needs love. We are Christians ourselves, but our message isn't strictly that, just being there for someone, stepping out of your comfort zone and into theirs, helping someone in need, giving a hug, smiling at that kid in your school who doesn't have many friends, anything that would show your love, whether or not you get a chance to share God's is a step in the right direction.

This summer, when the paint sticks, look for more Try Love around the area! We ask that you don't try to copy this, since it is very dangerous and tricky to do. All we ask is that you continue to share the message of Try Love and continue to show love to others.

Again, keep up the awesome work, let others know!

About Us

2007-06-06T18:17:00.000-07:00

So you have seen our art, read our blog, or heard about us in some way. You may think we are vandals, miscreants, or just a bunch of people that get a thrill out of breaking the law. But, we are not doing it for the thrill, or for fun. We are doing this because we believe the message needs to be heard. Our world is broken, torn, and in disarray. We need love. The world needs love.

If you want to find out who we are. Stop. We won't tell. We don't want people to know, we don't want recognition; all that we care about is getting the word out there.

Love, not as the world defines it

2007-06-06T12:24:00.000-07:00

Love. When people hear or see the word, they associate it with hearts, cupids, and gushy feelings towards another person. I am not against any of that, but is that really what love is? No. Love is more than the attraction to another, which commonly is confused with lust; Love is the kindness of a stranger, a hug from a friend, that helping hand when you need it the most, and many more things. This is what we need to focus on when we think of love.

Now, I am a person who looks for love. A smile from a stranger or a good word said really bring me up. Whenever I work on a task or create something, I put my heart into it. Today, all we see is criticism and pointing out the bad, that does not show love. Next time you see a mistake in someone, let them know all about the good you see, and gently let them know the mistakes.

Love is needed in everyday situations, in every place. I was on my bike today, at a four-way stop. I waited my turn, made sure that cars saw me, and began crossing. Someone honked and yelled at me because they were focussed on themselves and didn't want to let a biker go before them. When we become self-centered, its easy to be harsh or rude. This is another place I struggle a lot myself. Not taking yourself into account for everything, and helping someone, even if they are a stranger really shows that there is love and care in the world. Doing this also brings others up, makes them happier.

Finally another place that love has affected my life is my loneliness. I have always been different, never fitting in with a group, so I would stray my own way, doing my own thing. The problem with this is that I am a people person. I was alone, becoming more depressed because I was alone. For the longest time I struggled with waking up in the morning, with having a drive to do anything. I had a few friends show that they cared, show that they would go out of the way for me. In that time I also had many compliments on my graphic design from complete strangers, which just that little compliment helped.

Love needs to be on the front of all of our minds. You would be surprised to see what this will do in your life and the lives of others. Not being self centered, thinking about others for a change has helped me, and it might just help you to feel better about yourself and the people in your life. This is why I spend a night here and there spray-painting, to show that a little love can go a long way. Sure, I feel a little regret in vandalism, but if all I do is make one person think... I have done well. All it takes is a spark to create a flame, and if I can be that spark, I will have completed my goal in this.

Picture Sighting

2007-06-05T17:43:00.001-07:00

First of the many pictures that will be coming in

Definition One of, "Try Love"

2007-06-04T21:10:00.001-07:00

Try Love

First of all, what is love? The OED defines love as "Intense feelings of deep affection" amongst a smattering of different wordings to the same concept. It defines affections as, "a gentle feeling of fondness or liking." Combine the definitions and love is an intense feeling of deep fondness or liking.
Personally, I define love as, "a desire to make someone else's life better, more pleasurable, or easier; even if it comes at your expense."

So what does it mean to "Try Love"? On one level this means how you react to the actions and words of others. Since anger is the polar opposite of love (anger being the active form of hatred), this means never succumbing to anger: not lashing out with words you don't mean, not beating your wife (or anyone else, for that matter), not holding a grudge, and not looking for opportunities to shame others. On the second level, this means how you act towards others. By my definition, Love is a very similar concept to selfless-ness, but Love is more personal. It can be as simple as just holding the door for someone, smiling, and hugging them goodbye instead of shaking their hand, or it could be deeper, such as listening when they want to talk, letting them cry on your shoulder, helping them on a project for school, being interested in something because they are (were it not for them, you wouldn't care about said something). The third level is how you live your life in general. If you live a life of Love, there are just some things you don't do. Pornography and excessive drinking are easy examples, but it's not too difficult to look at unloving lifestyles that people around you embrace. The hard part is looking at your own life. On a fourth, and larger level, can you imagine not just an individual, but a group of individuals, a community even, built around love? Everyone helping each other, no one angry (or at least not acting on their anger), it would be heaven on earth (which I believe is a very real concept).

Why is Love so important that I feel the need to risk arrest and fines by spray painting it on public property? I mean "Love" isn't something we never hear about. 99.9% of all pop songs are written about love. But that's a different kind of love: romantic love. Love on the other hand, is, as I defined before, universal. You can Love your spouse and family, but you can also Love your friends, coworkers, classmates, etc. Romantic love is confined to loving your "significant other," and thereby loses so much meaning. Even the definition the OED gives loses meaning: love is an intense feeling of deep fondness or liking? What the hell does that mean? Fondness is defined as having affection or liking. It's a circle definition and therefore meaningless. Here's why I (routinely) risk the fines and vandalism record: people are so caught up in feeling romantic love, that they don't understand where it comes from. People are selfish. Families are dysfunctional. Hurting people are lonely, and lonely people are hurting. All of this could be alleviated (maybe even cured) by Love.

If people would just Try Love then there is no doubt in my mind that the world would be a better place. And if it takes a few bucks worth of spray paint to (hopefully) inspire someone, I'm there.

In this world of paint and pain,
....Try Love....

2007-06-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

Try Love

The spraypaint on bridges, overpasses, streets, and other places, maybe you've seen it, maybe you haven't, but either way, we are a small group of people who feel the need to bring love to the world. Not the romantic kind of love, just the love for your fellow (wo)man.

"Do not kill, Do not rape, Do not steal. These are principles which every man of every faith can embrace"

We will each post what "Try Love" means to us shortly, but for now, I just wanted to get this site up, so this will be a short, somewhat pointless post

In this world of pain
......Try Love........

Try Love

"Try Love" is the belief that once the power of love & humility outweighs the Love of Power & Popularity then people will be happier --
A revolution if you will, a new line of thought.
( If you tie in religion, which you don't have to, it is similar to the definition if the Kingdom of heaven on earth)
Remember it isn't about religion though. It is about each other.

In this world of pain
......Try Love........