Valentine's Day

Today is the day on which we celebrate romantic or erotic love. Eros, the Roman god of love. Is it odd that we now use the term 'erotic' to described physical love? Once upon a time that term would have referred to the feelings we had for each other, as opposed to the feelings we had for God or our fellow man. Now it seems to have evolved into a description of the physical manifestation of love.

Which, as we know, can have very little to do with love. Ask any hooker, for whom the act of physical pleasure is a means to a financial end. No matter what goes on, the hooker keeps her eyes on the payday at the end of the act.

When erotic love is diminished to mean physical 'love' or physical 'pleasure' then the reason for that love flies out the window. Erotic love is an electrical impulse in the brain, a shot of enzymes and blood through body, a physical response to chemistry and electrical impulses.

What, then, can we say about the foremost organ of love: the brain? What happens to what we think and feel about the other person toward whom our love is directed? Is it even necessary?

The brain is a flexible tool. It can create reasons for the actions of the body beyond reality. It can "create" love where there is nothing with which to work. Whether it comes from a glance on the sidewalk or a touch in a crowd or even a picture in a magazine or movie.

The mystery and magic of this love occurs when the physical impulses you feel match with the physical impulses the other person feels and this simple physical pleasure becomes greater than the sum of those impulses. When the different types of love that the Greeks and the Romans delineated in their philosophy meld into one. That is when the love you feel becomes an all-encompassing love which is physical and brotherly and godly, all at one time.

In a modern world where the chance for an all-encompassing love is limited by the ease with which we can terminate our relationships with others, the beauty of this love is so strong that we still yearn for it, still say the vows and offer ourselves as sacrifice to others. The marriage rate has not gone down over time.

This is the mystery of faith depicted on the canvas of our very lives.

Happy Valentine's Day