Thursday, February 16, 2006

Over the course of time, something has happened to love. Sanskrit has 96 words for it. Ancient Persian has 80, Greek has 3, and yet English, the most widely used language today, only has one. As time passes by, love's gotten distilled. While Man continues to experience an infinite variety of emotions and mental states, a single four-letter word has taken it all upon its back. It is the cause of all these emotions, and like a tsunami, it drowns them all out. Such is its overwhelming presence. That is such a heavy responsibility for such a tiny word to carry on its back. Then again, the longest words that appear in dictionaries today, such as Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious remain of relatively microscopic when compared to love. Love is strong. While it may not hold up sometimes, it stands up to every challenge it faces, bravely even when faced without alternative. Love is alive today and in every place on Earth. But it is not shown.

Valentine's Day, in its current form, serves simply as a way for greedy florists and other sneaky merchants to exploit people for one day of the year, by charging exorbitant amounts of money just for them to show how much they love their loved ones for one day of the year. However,the fact remains that money cannot be a substitute for love, no matter what the amount. While the idea behind this certainly is nice, does this mean we do not show our love to each other for the other 364 days of the year? Love fits into many different places ; It is not all about romance. Sanskrit teaches us love of many things : Love for oneself, love for friends, love for enemies(after all, without them, friends would be for granted), and love for many things we take for granted today. So, show the people around you that you love them, be it your unreasonable economics teacher, that lecherous security guard, that girl you've always admired from afar or that cutie you've never failed to have a chuckle at. Even a tiny smile can make someone feel a bit better.

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For those wondering, I spent my Valentine's day on MC, slacking around at home.