Oh for the love...

I don't like Valentine's Day.

I'm not alone, I'm sure.

Don't get me wrong -- I love love, I love people, I even love creating imaginary people for my stories, but I do not love this day.

I don't believe we need one day out of the year to celebrate love. It's something we should celebrate every day, simply by loving.

It's because of that, I believe, that this day has become something other than what it was intended to be. From what I understand, it's supposed to be a day where we celebrate the idea of love and spend time with those we cherish. But it's become commercial, it's become sexual, and it's become anything but what it was intended.

Love isn't commercial.

It isn't sexual.

It isn't even understated.

Love is the greatest non-emotional emotion there is -- and it's probably the only one that exists.

We don't need a day to celebrate it (though I understand the thought behind that, and I don't entirely mind that). We need to actually love, to spread joy and care through the whole of this world, and to remember that love isn't just about that tingly feeling between a man and a woman.

It's the look in a mother's eye when she holds her newborn babe, it's the smile on a boy's face when he hugs his dog for the first time since he's come home from college, it's the desire of every parent to provide for their children, it's the disposition of the grandparents who give to every child on their block, it's something that goes beyond anything we get celebrate, because it's something that should be our very way of life.

And for you writers out there, this is the kind of love you should be trying to capture in your stories. Real love. True love. Uncommericalized, unadulterated love. Plain and simple. 

That's how I feel about it.

[love -- real, true love]

{RD}