Heartless

Valentine’s Day is always about love, and always accompanied with chocolates, flowers, dates and gifts. Flower shops, chocolate stores and restaurants must be the luckiest businesses around, maybe even grossing sales higher than movies and music, and winning big time than those on stock marketing. This is not to exaggerate the celebration because it is really a big thing – for ‘lovers’.

But if Valentine’s Day is all about love then today must be the best day to live life. If love is what makes this day a celebration fantastic to the maximum level, then everything contrary must be absent. You know today is crime free, forgive and forget, no induced abortion, divorce and suicide cases day. Newspapers and news telecast must talk nothing but good, true and happy stories. You may think it’s too superlative but it is supposed to be like that, ideal but possible.

But we know it is not the case. From dragging one self to get up, to coming late to work, to getting too inquisitive about other people’s business, then saddened by crimes and injustices reported on news, increasingly being diluted by the economic and political pressures, battling with confused and addictive behaviors, the many sour and bitter relationships around, we know they continue to exist and happening still, even today. How come on Valentine’s or hearts’ day, the ‘all about love’ day, could we still face and accommodate bad (evil) happenings? Something is missing here.

Is it about the definition of love or understanding love? Or maybe it’s all the time about us? The ancient Greeks adeptly scrutinized and classified love. For them there are four words for love. “There is erōs, which is love between a man and a woman, and which definitely involves sexual passion. There is philia which is the warm affection exists between those who are very near and very dear to each other. There is storgē which is characteristically the word for family affection. And there is this word agapē which is translated either love or charity. The real meaning of agapē is unconquerable benevolence. If we regard a person with agapē, it means nothing that that person can or will ever do will make us seek anything but that person’s highest good.” (William Barclay)

And the answer is loud and clear.

Happy V Day everyone!