Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on UnsplashI suppose that it’s good to keep Valentine’s Day mostly private, but there was some wisdom to how it was practiced in school when I was growing up. In primary school the rule was that everyone had to give everyone else a valentine card. You couldn’t just give them to the people you liked. Valentines Day was a day of equity, and, as children understand it, love. Love for everyone, not just those of your nation or ethnicity. Kids of any gender received cards from kids of any other gender. The point was, love one another. Looking at the way that hatred has become the new normal with right-wing politicians leading the way, Valentines Day has become a much-needed symbol. We should be loving those who are different. Instead we go to the polls and elect extremists who start wars and who brag, even before votes are cast, of the damage they intend to do in their next term. Where’s the love?
I confess to being an idealist, but I do wonder why love is so difficult to achieve. Are we so much the victims of tribalism that we can’t see there’s enough to go around? We live in a world where, were it properly administered, we could see to it that most people, if not all, would have their basic needs met. Where love could be our highest motivating factor. Instead, we want the love of only those we love and everyone else can fend for themselves. And whatever facsimile of love we can muster ends at an artificial line we call a national border. Those on the other side are our enemies and we want to take what they have. Is this a sane way to spend Valentines Day?
The irony of all this is that those who perpetuate this divide and conquer mentality were raised in religions founded by leaders who insisted on love. Love your neighbors. And, more radically, love your enemies. What if Valentine’s Day were more than just a time for romantic dinners and little treats, and those things which are best kept private? What if it were a day when we all tried to love that kid who’s always picking on you? Or who looks different? That kid that doesn’t seem to have any friends? Childhood taught us that everyone’s shoebox got a card today. We may have been too young to understand some aspects of love, but one thing we got right. Everyone deserves ours. Why not try love?
