Skip to main content

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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gilmore Girls vs. The Matrix or Don't Believe The Oracle

  Has anyone ever told you who you are or who you are NOT? Did you believe them? It occurred to me that we are all so effected by what people say - how people label us. Of course, my inspiration for this post was after watching The Matrix again. Because all my inspirations are from movies. Wait until I watch Fletch again. :) In the movie, Morpheus tells Neo that he is the "One" or the one to save the world. He starts to believe him even though he as no evidence to suggest he was the one. Then the Oracle tells Neo he is NOT the one. Now he believes her. Why? Because she is supposed to be the expert. She can foresee the future. It turns out (spoiler alert) he IS the "One." Another good example of the effects of this is illustrated in the TV show, Gilmore Girls. Rory is told by Mr. Huntzberger, the big newspaper man, that she doesn't have what it takes to be a newspaper editor. She quits Yale. So yes, my tastes run from The Matrix to Gilmore Girls, but ...
1 comment
Read more

Dual nature

It occurred to me today that I have to start this practicing love if I am going to get any better at it. So I set about to only think good thoughts about people today. It was apparently too lofty a goal for me today. Whatever you practice, you do. I don't know why we continue to practice hate, anger, sadness, frustration, jealousy, etc. It comes out. We seem to gravitate to it. Someone says, "Did you hear what she said?" and we perk up and hope it's juicy. "She is such a horrible person!" we may continue. We love this for some reason. Maybe it's because of the same genes that make us laugh every time someone falls down. Anyway, whatever the reason, it is something to fight against. But I don't want to say fight against, because that too has a negative connotation. It is something to supplant. You see we have two natures, human and spirit. I don't care what religion you practice or don't. You have to feel this spirit within you or recogniz...
1 comment
Read more

Be like water

I studied Hapkido for about five+ years and was always fascinated by the metaphysical aspect of the martial arts. The word "Hapkido" is Korean and means, "the way of coordinated power." Everything is circular and you use your ki or chi or lifeforce or strength to combine with your opponent's energy to redirect the force to your advantage. It is pretty cool. One popular martial art maxim is "be like water." I think Bruce lee explains it the best. Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend. The "be like water" princ...
Post a Comment
Read more