CSI: The Love-Case

 If love was a crime…
Valentines Day; the day on which we celebrate love and pay for all sorts of stuff to prove that we do. Cards, flowers, candy, stuffed animals, candlelight dinner,  jewelry, lingerie… it all serves as evidence in a case where we try to convince that we are guilty as charged. To make sure that our object of desire is not just the victim of a crime passionnel, but a victim of criminal intent. 

 The anatomy of love:
Love is something strange, we can’t touch it, we can’t measure it, we can’t even fully understand it. But man, do we crave for it; from our first heartbeat up to our very last. Love is our birthright, and we'll search for it with fervor. We are searching for love in others. We want them to fill the gaps and make us feel better. We search for love in the wrong places. We let our personal happiness and image of self-worth depend on the approval of other people. We'll even settle for poor quality copies of the original; settling for 'love' that is motivated by need, instead of LOVE that is motivated by choice. 

Few things are as universal as the desire to feel loved. Few things are so easily mistaken for something else, fueled by other motives; lust, need, dependence, loneliness, personal gain, fear or comfort. Few things are desired so much that we try to find substitutes to fill that empty void within us; sex, drugs, alcohol, fame, keeping up appearances, fake friends and bad relationships. 

Love, we are screaming for it, but we are often too blinded to even recognize it. We look for that fluffy feeling that makes everything so much better, we mistake it to be something which it is not. Love is no instant gratification. “Love makes you bleed and scream and crawl…” 

Love is what makes you do the right thing despite the consequences. It makes you catch a bullet to save the life of another person, even if it meant giving up your own life. It makes you get up in the middle of the night for a hungry baby, or a friend in need. It makes you hold your pet in your arms as the vet puts it to sleep, despite your own pain. It makes you swallow your pride for the sake of being happy, instead of being right.  

Lovers, friends, family, pets… love is love. True love has no gender, no race, no age, no social class, no religion, not even a species; because it is for all of us. Love is as fundamental to our existence as the air we breathe and the water we drink. Love fuels compassion, it fuels understanding and it fuels respect. Love is the basis from which we can grow; touch with love, talk with love, cry with love, laugh with love, fight with love, make love with love and make art with love.

 The verdict
So what keeps us from loving ourselves? Why is it so hard? After all, how can you give what you don’t hold? Get a hold of the best Valentine-gift ever! It’s free, it’s diet-proof, it has no expiration date, it’s healthy, it’s never out of fashion, once you have it you'll attract even more of it, you totally deserve it and there is nothing wrong with giving this gift to yourself: