Trending
Love covers a lot of ground.
There is the love between a parent and a child. There's love for one's partner, sibling, friend, pet.
There is even the very real love a child feels for a favorite stuffed animal. Any parent who has had to wash that stuffed animal or search frantically for it can attest to that.
Some might say love varies in its degrees -- that the love one has for a spouse cannot compare to the love between a tow-headed child and his pretend dinosaur.
The point is noted, but we won't quibble at this time over such technicalities. Because we feel love, in any of its forms, is essential -- now more than ever as we deal with the lingering effects of the pandemic.
Violence and hatred can end us individually, but we cannot let it take us down collectively.
Therein lies the rub. Because it is as individuals that we must make choices that will change all of our lives for the better.
By all means, kiss your lover, hug your friend and keep your children close. Buy the flowers, the chocolates, the paper hearts.
But don't forget your neighbor. Remember, maybe the man taking so long in line in front of you just lost a friend who was serving his country. Maybe a child crying to his mother in the bus seat next to you misses his father who is sleeping on a friend's couch.
And perhaps the woman who brushed you aside at the checkout counter doesn't know if she can pay her mortgage this month. Or maybe she lost someone close to COVID.
Love will save us. Love can keep us from having to carry alone the weight of this heavy, heavy world we live in.
Today, let's remember all that ground love can cover. Be kind. Love one another.
And Happy Valentine's Day.