02/15/08
I’ve never really liked Valentine’s Day.
There’s something about the color scheme, the commercials, the dinner reservations, the flowers…it’s like we were celebrating Aphrodite’s birthday up until Dionysus showed up, and now we’re all too drunk on romanticized commercialism to remember the very thing we’re celebrating.
There’s something about all of that, that never seems to sincerely summon the presence of Eros, and let’s face it, I don’t think Valentine’s Day is supposed to do that either.
American holidays are like waves: They build on the frenzy and expectation the media create before they break under a deadline, and once they cover us, they retreat and rebuild for the next swell.
And all that love that cost Americans roughly $1 billion each year withers with the roses.
Sometimes, I can’t help but feel as if Valentine’s Day is a medium America hires every year to get in touch with love long dead.
I usually sit out Valentine’s Day festivities, and I’ll admit, there have been years where I’ve organized my friends together to vocally protest the shenanigans.
I probably would have done the same this year had it not been for Chris Hedges.
Chris Hedges was once a war correspondent and is now a published author.
He has crossed the globe covering different conflicts, recording war in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Colombia.
He has seen the Kurdish uprisings in Turkey and the West Bank and Gaza dripping red with violence; he’s witnessed the civil wars of the Sudan and Yemen, and can attest to having lived through war in Bosnia and in Kosovo.
He is currently senior fellow for the periodical The Nation Institute in New York City and the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton University.
In 2002 he published, “War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning,” a bestseller that he hoped would help readers better understand the machine of war.
His book not only gave me a clearer understanding of war, but also the power of love. “Love…includes self-giving – often self-sacrifice – as well as desire…It recognizes itself in another…Love, in its mystery, has its own power. It alone gives us meaning that endures. It alone allows us to embrace and cherish life.”
Here’s my suggestion and my opinion: If you want to celebrate love, then do so.
Do it each and every moment of your each and every day.
If opening a door is enough for some on the 14th, then why not all year long?
It doesn’t have to stop on the 15th, nor does the breadth of your love.
If you really want to show love, then love the air you breathe and invest in better fuels, help reduce pollution, don’t throw trash out of your car.
If you want to show you love being a part of this country, then vote in the elections and raise your voice.
If you want to show you love this world and the people in it, then take the time to understand why people halfway across the world blow themselves up.
Exercise love by showing compassion to every person you will ever meet because your love’s true aim can lay beyond one person. It has the potential to envelop the world.