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Love, romance and a Valentines recipe

We just had Valentines Day. Woohoo! BTW Is there an apostrophe in Valentine's Day? Valentines' Day? Anyway, I have never been a fan of the day. I am of the "Hallmark Holiday" camp. Trumped up holiday to sell cards and flowers. But you can't write a blog about love and poo-poo the only internationally recognized day for demonstrative affection. You see the commercials; you hear the radio spots; there's a lot of pressure to be romantic. So what do you do. Send roses? A card? Give out Nerds, candy hearts? Chocolate?! I know, get your wife/girlfriend/mistress some lingerie! Thanks Victoria but the secret is already out. That is the gift you give yourself. So what is a lover to do about romance on a day like this?

I read somewhere (probably a trashy men's magazine) that the way to a girl's heart is not all those things. Women like a little note that shows them that you were thinking of them. HUH? Yeah, that's right. You see we are talking about a woman's heart not her pants. Romance is not the gateway drug to sex (well, if done right...). Romance is about the human heart. We should have seen the signs about this. Valentines Day's main symbol is a red or pink heart. We see thousands of these things and we still think it is about stuff. Most men expect to get a little somethin'-somethin' for the stuff too.

What does it mean to be romantic? What is romance? Is romance, love? Do love and romance go hand-in-hand? People often complain that the romance has gone out of the marriage. What does that mean? I think that people use the two words interchangeably. But as Inigo Montoya said to Vizzini, "I do not think that word means what you think it means."

Romance is another word that has multiple meanings. When you have multiple meanings for a word you tend to lose them and mix them up. The word means excitement, mystery and the process of falling in love. It also means wild exaggeration, courting and winning over. "Romancing the Stone" was a movie about a man trying to con his way into getting a precious stone. There are romance languages. You can romanticize the past. You could have been an artist in the romantic era. Romanticism.

I might have stumbled on to something. Artists. Romanticism. Exaggeration. Excitement. None of these things are love. So what do they have to do with each other? Artists make you feel. It seems that love has to be felt. If you can excite a person by the nature of your love, they will feel it. When they feel, you feel. Romance, I believe, is the process of effecting someone so they feel excited. Surprise. Laughter. Embarrassment. These are all exciting feelings. That is why the opposite of love is apathy not hate.

MY VALENTINE TO CORY RECIPE
  1. Wake up early.
  2. Write messages to Cory on pink post-it notes
  3. Stick post-its on everything she is likely to see or touch
    • Near the toilet, toothbrush, mirror, honey, almond milk, pantry, kitchen window under blinds, guitar, Jeff award, ukelele chords cheat sheet, shower, car rear view mirror and purse.
Make oatmeal.
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