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When reaching for a cookbook from my bookshelf another fell to the ground. Love: What Life Is All About by Leo Buscaglia. How timely!

I remember fondly Professor Buscaglia's broadcasts on PBS in the 80's and early 90's and the topic was always the same-love and how to give more of it.

In the days before CDs and DVDs you could buy audio tapes of Professor Buscaglia's lectures which had aired on public broadcasting. I remember fondly how my son-only in elementary school at the time-had me play Dr. Buscaglia's tapes over and over on the car tape player until I thought they would wear out or tear.

Felice Leo Buscaglia-how appropriate that "felice" means happiness in Italian-was at first mocked when, as a professor of education at the University of Southern California he wanted to teach a class on love. It began as a non-credit class called Love 1A and there were no grades as, according to the professor, failing someone wouldn't be very loving, and to be very honest, who could complain when the class assignment consisted of giving out hugs!

This morning I am wondering how Dr. Buscaglia would be reacting to our troubled economy, and what suggestions he would be making if he were still here. A son of Italian immigrants that he always spoke so lovingly about in his lectures, this man with the humblest of beginnings would be reminding us that love is free!

To be sure he would in no way minimize the effect a bad economy has on us-especially psychologically. And that there are now likely to be more diagnoses of depression. As a matter of fact, it was upon learning of the suicide of a student that he came up with the idea for his Love 1A class.

At first this class was looked upon as ridiculous, but eventually it became one of the most popular seminars at USC. His message was always simple yet profound. We can ALL love more. In fact, he claimed to have the "copyright on love" after discovering that the title "Love" had not previously been claimed by any other writer.

Dr. Buscaglia has been gone for 10 years now. He died in June of 1998. I hope some day PBS will be putting his lectures on DVD format. In those lectures I recall noticing how profusely Professor Buscaglia was perspiring as he talked about his favorite subject. I'm sure that even if he knew there were huge stains under his arms that he wouldn't have cared at all. Love was a topic that he made so compelling that I couldn't help but become swept up in this, his great passion.

About one thing I am almost certain. His advise

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