Valentine’s Day is a chocolate-fueled celebration of all things romantic, but the idea is deeper than a few rose petals.
Sadly, we are human. We should be the very last ones to define what love is because we have broken what love was intended to be. Humans have made it so hard to love; we’ve made it impossible to believe in love, in its truest form.
Love has become a simple, meaningless object that constantly judges and asks too much. Today, physical and emotional abuse are common products of relationships. The entertainment industry has turned the idea of love into a fairytale in which perfect relationships and unachievable physical looks always end in happily ever after. It’s funny that people still haven’t realized that beauty is only temporary, and makes for an equally fleeting form of love.
Maybe this is the reason so many confuse lust with love. If you are attracted to someone, that’s what gives you the push to want to get to know them. Love-at-first-sight is more likely a myth than a fact, and you can’t love someone without looking deeper than his or her appearance.
People are prone to using the term “love” loosely. We “love” the drama of reality TV. We “love” ice cream and we “just love” to gossip. The root of this problem is that everyone just wants to be part of a tangible love that is returned, even when love is completely destructive.
Think about this – why do people “love” alcohol? Because in return it makes everything seemingly easier to tolerate. People “love” movies and books because they offer an escape and help them temporarily forget. They “love” food for its taste and ability to fill stomachs and give energy.
It’s easy to fall for these things. Yet, the problem is that these things keep us coming back, since they never really satisfy. They promise what they cannot deliver. We love them, and they end up owning us – we forget that real love frees, rather than enslaves.
Perhaps, romantic love is most glorified because it’s a form of returned love. A romantic story, a romantic dinner and a romantic first kiss make people fall in love and feel loved. And the beloved Hollywood and Hallmark prove this to be true. It has led consumers to believe that romance is the main event and that if you are alone on Valentine’s Day, you are unloved and unromanced.
The truth is, there is nothing wrong with being alone on Valentine’s Day. On a day that glorifies romance, have we forgotten what love really is? What is the point of Valentine’s Day anyway? It’s the one day out of the year we are supposed to show how much we love someone, but aren’t we supposed to do that every day?
Whether or not you are alone this Feb. 14, you are a part of a romantic story every time the sun sets, a flower blooms, a wave crashes or you see a star in the sky — you are loved because you are alive.
We love, romance and sacrifice ourselves for others: friends and enemies, spouses and significant others, strangers and family, rich and poor, near and far. We love because we should be loved.
Love and romance should be desired and elevated, but there is more to love and romance than that. Maybe our culture isn’t guilty of shallow love. Maybe we are guilty of cheapening what love really is: truthful, continuous, unconditional and sacrificial.
