As The Beatles said, “All you need is love.” To them, love is the answer no matter the case. Historically, however, Valentine’s Day was not one of love. Originally it was about sex and lottery and keeping the men happy and single. Claudius, the Roman emperor of the time, believed soldiers fought better when they were not married. He went onto ban marriages of the young and fit to fight. Valentine was known to marry couples even though the emperor forbid. When looking back at what Valentine sacrificed, the church celebrates his courage to put his beliefs before his own wellbeing. He believed in love and marriage and did so in the name of God. As time has passed and the celebration of the Patron Saint of Lovers became larger, it became a national holiday for all to enjoy. Today, however, it has been become an instrument of society.
Love is what’s to be celebrated on this day, but do we know what love is? Stores and companies make profit off this holiday selling gifts that are supposed to “show your love” to those you love. As Dr. Seuss explains it, “We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” Love is unique to each person and no one can say exactly what it is. Love can be a way of life, a feeling deep in your soul, an unnoticed thought, or all of the above. As we celebrate Valentine’s today let us not think of material objects of love but of those around us that create in us these feelings.