“What is love…”
“Love, love, love…”
“Love hurts…” and stings, bites, makes the world go round. It’s a battlefield, losing game, all you need, an open door. And don’t forget love is blind, strong, here to stay, and the message.
You know lyrics from many of those “love” songs… there must be a million of them. The tune sticks in your head and you wonder about the words. But on this Valentine’s Day… that first one… what is love? We know what it isn’t… see that most every day. Let’s not get off track. How you do define, describe or determine… love?
They wrote about it long before Shakespeare… and he would certainly make love a theme. “Just like Romeo and Juliet…” – uh oh, enough with the song lyrics. Today romance novels, scripted streaming series, and social media blather on about “love”. It’s a focus of written, electronic and all media everywhere.
Love is A Many Splendored Thing
No, wait. Because they write fact or fiction about “love”, does that define it? Not really. And not to get racy, is it love, lust, and some other longing woven into the songs, stories and shows? To further muddy the moment, is love a feeling, an act, commitment, devotion or something else? I’m just asking. Who gets to answer?
You do. You get to answer and you do so by choosing what to believe about love. Society will respect your personal option and stand clear while you deliberate and decide?
Nope. Not even close.
Mixed Messaging For All
Madison Avenue, as they used to say, will market you early and often to believe their messaging about love. Beer, beaches, bounty will be packaged, presented and pushed to your feed and screen to help you understand what love is… most often associated with romance, happiness, leisure, pleasure… which happen to be wrapped in their brands. Social media will take your love education to the next level by personalizing the algorithms that meet your self-interest. After all, self-love (self-esteem) “is the greatest love of all…” more lyrics, stop it. This is the third rung of modern messaging about love, a land where therapy and philosophy define love inwardly, rather than outwardly as may have been traditional.
Are we doomed to absorb how marketing, social media, and modern psychology define love? Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting there’s no truth or value in these vaunted institutions. But is there more to love? Or maybe less of a convoluted answer? Let’s allow the dated and left-in-the-dust values and players have their say.
Your mother, maybe even your father, may have known something about love. At best, they loved each other. And you. Or not. Might have been right or wrong, a good or poor example. Perhaps you have to go back to grandparents, but be certain love is like glue to family life.
You may have/had a love of your life. He/she knew it, you knew it, and sacrificial love made it a one-of-a-kind relationship. The love was first outward and made your inner heart beat a bit faster.
Eternal Love
And then there’s this bold declaration: “Herein is love…” If you’re curious enough to click the link it’ll reference the beginning of love. We didn’t gin up love. God loved us, even though we didn’t deserve it. So much love, he sacrificed his life. As many as believe will know eternal love.
Bottom line on this Valentine’s Day, ponder true love. It’s there for you. Even if your match has yet to step up or loneliness won’t leave. Let the marketing and media messaging massage someone else.
Happy Valentine’s Day, friend!
I’m probably not gonna say it right. In the context of God’s love for us. Valentine’s Day, the real meaning of true love, not candy, flowers, and gifts. The gift is His love for us. Like Christmas, all that goes with it, but Jesus birth is or should be prominent. It is to some. Then the Easter Bunny and all that goes with it but the real truth is what Jesus did on the cross for us.
Some folks get it right away, for others it takes awhile, but I hope not too long.
Thank you
Well said… Valentine’s Day has an interesting background dating back centuries. Today, it means all kinds of things it seems. Love, on the other hand, has one original source as you noted well. Happy Valentine’s Day!