A Love Letter to Love
A Valentine's Day Special
Valentine’s day is perhaps the one Catholic Holiday that has been truly secularized. It is a day that capitalism tells us that we should celebrate love. There are many a Christian “Midrash” about how St. Valentine is tied to love and how he allowed it to foster and endure during times of hardship; an admirable goal, no matter how historically accurate.
“Love endures all things”, another Christian quote about love reads. An idea that many of us who have been in a loving relationship that faded or broke will disagree with. Love is a strong platonic idea that we romanticize, but how real is it? Love may be a complex series of chemical reactions in your brain based on hormones, pheromones, and social cues, but does it become less real because of that? I would argue no because love does not make sense, it’s messy and life-changing. Love is why I am writing this as someone who is down the path of Judaism, love is why I play Quidditch, love is why I am an anarchist, love is why I know way too much about computer science, love is why I am who I am. If it were not for love I would not be Rose, I would still be Him. Those parts of me will always be there no matter what happens to the love that fostered it. My love for these people endures in the mark they left on me just as their love for me left marks on them.
As an Aro-Ace(ish) Autistic person my relationship with love is an interesting one. I know what love is, it was the most beautiful gut feeling I have ever had. Each time I felt it, it felt different and burned in a different intensity and color, just as beautiful as the last. The same can be said about my love for my friends. Each burned beautifully with a wish of an eternity of friendship and each with a crushing darkness with each hurt and end. We all see the love in our lives and in each other’s differently but we all see it as love. The world’s most prolific lesbian, Sappho, wrote many a poem about heterosexual love, and despite her not knowing how that felt, she was able to portray it just as beautifully as it existed before her eyes (Love is love after all).
We all have seen love, no matter how long, no matter how short, whether through our eyes or someone else’s, whether it was physical, platonic, or romantic, whether it was for a person, an object, or a concept. This is what I believe we should be celebrating this day. You have 364 days a year to tell your partner you love them but your friends do not hear that often, those who mean the most in your life need this affirmation just as much as your lover. Let those who bring you joy in your life know what they mean to you. Go tell your high school teacher who inspired your love of physics that you love them and where they have led you in life. Tell the people who set you down your path that you love them. Tell your best friends that you love them. Tell those who create the content and fandoms that you love and fill your life with that you love them (but not in a creepy way). And go tell G-d that you love Him and everything He has given you in life. Celebrate love with everyone you think deserves it this Valentine’s Day because some or all of these loves may be fleeting, so celebrate them while they are here. Happy Valentine’s Day y’all.
Rose is not a writer by trade but she is a romantic. Telling her you love her and her work today would mean a lot (esp if you are a pretty girl).