A Tribute to a Valentine

Posted by Aaron - 14/02/10 at 07:02:07 pm

Some people hate Valentine’s Day. A time for corporations to make an easy buck off chocolate, cheesy love cards, and overpriced flowers. A time for celebrating the impossible compatibility of two people who can have the otherwordly ability to ignore each others faults and make googly eyes at each other, while the rest of the people on the bus throw up a little. And sadly, it can be a time when those we love do not love us back.

Some people love Valentine’s Day. These are the recipients of the corporate chocolates, cheesy cards, flowers, or the ones whose hearts have just been punctured by cupid’s arrow. The newly engaged, the recently married, the ones wrapped up in the toasty-warm blanket of bliss. Life can take them anywhere as long as their lovers eyes and lips are within a breath.

However cynical or romantic you are, you have to agree that love is remarkable. That two people, against so many odds, connect with one another in a way that goes beyond personality, family, age, and status. Where two people grasp a selfless bond, relinquishing their own self-protection to devote themselves with complete vulnerability to each other. When one hurts, the other hurts. With joy, joy is shared. As with all the greatest love stories, love transcends time, fear, ugliness, passion, and brands herself on you, never to be forgotten. Even in those days where life couldn’t be more harsh or messy, one glance, one brush of the skin, one memory and we remember we are loved beyond what we deserve and can do nothing except return the love given.

So what if we made an institution out of it? For the cynics, they can be glad the dentists will have a lot of drilling to do in the spring. For the romantics, they can rejoice that on Valentine’s Day, the world is reminded of the love we so often take for granted. Celebrate your love and if you have lost it, find it and never let go.

My valentine, Kristen, today, with her valentine husband:

3 Comments

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1. This is absolutely beautiful, Aaron. Your words must come from a place of deep knowing, from an intense love between you and Kristen. And you make me begin to trust that love is good, and that it’s worth pursuing. Thank you for being an inspiring example. A.

   Comment by Anna Studenny — February 14, 2010 #

2. This makes me so happy, kids. So happy. I love you both. But- perhaps transcending the love I have for you both is the love I have for Kristen’s bangs.

   Comment by Kristen McCarty — February 14, 2010 #

3. <3 you two.

   Comment by Libby Unwin — February 15, 2010 #

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