A young child may be seeking love of his parents. A young boy might be seeking love of a girl he likes or loves. A girl in her youth might be seeking somebody to love her. Elderly parents might be seeking love of their children. No doubt, love is the central and the most important part of our life. And for sure without love, one can’t survive on this earth for long.
During Valentine’s Day, there was so much excitement among the youngsters. It seemed as if love was available only on this day. Understanding the Valentine fever, Nepali dailies (both Nepali and English) too gave due prominence by giving ample space for coverage on matters relating to love. Electronic media did not remain aloof either.
It is a matter of fact that love concerns everybody or it’s a great matter for all. Love brings people together, the absence of it causes separation. For that matter, love upholds life. Love gives a desire to live. People feel dry without it. They feel ike fish out of water. Just as it is the fish’s biological need to be immersed in water for it to remain alive, people too can’t go long without love biologically. In other words, people feel incomplete without love. Love is not an option. Rather, it’s something they can’t do without. It is a compulsion. Like the deer pants for water, people pant for love.
On the microbus I was traveling on the recent Valentine’s Day, a newly-married couple sat behind me in the last seat by the window. Then someone in the crowd remarked to a friend, ‘Today is Valentine’s Day, don’t you know?’
This seemed to have a strong effect on the newly married man behind me. I could hear him say to his wife, “Hey, today’s Valentine’s Day, what are you gonna give me? Aren’t you going to give me a pretty flower on a stem?”
This made his wife speechless. Probably she too in her heart was asking the same question, “Aren’t you going to give me something as a token of love?”
Many people tend to think that love is a thing to receive first. And the problem starts therein because love is a thing to be given first before even thinking of getting it back. A saying may be pertinent to be quoted here: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” This means if you want other people to be good to you, you should first good to them. So, if you want to get love from others you must love them first.
But today many people try to get love through freshly chopped (but dead) rose flowers and other material gifts. Love obtained in this way doesn’t last long. The flower atop the chopped stem soon begins to wither and fades away before one realizes. The sweet smell and the beauty of the flower starts to emit a nauseous damp smell and begins to look ugly. The ‘valuable’ gifts given with so much hope seem to return only despair. The artificial love begins to prick like the hard and sharp thorns of a dead rose plant.
You may ask, so how do I know whether someone really loves me or that you love someone genuinely? What is love actually? Maybe this definition of love from the Bible might help.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It is not envious, neither does it boast nor is it proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
paudyal.ezra@gmail.com
Related story
Falling in Love
