So in honor of the fake holiday we recently celebrated, aka Valentine’s Day, I’ve decided to blog about love. I never understood the fuss that people made about love until I fell in love myself. It seemed like a rather irrational enterprise that robbed people of their common sense and plunged them off cliffs in fits of desperation. But for some reason the tragic endings of famous couples are celebrated with soft sighs of and the consensus that it could end no other way. A love destined to die. Surely these extreme reactions come from people with addled brains.
We meet Francesca and Paulo in the early levels of hell where other people who have died for love reside (most of them seem to be women…coincidence?). The two lovers were seduced by reading together and were eventually killed by Francesca’s husband. Cleopatra and Dido are also mentioned in this level. Are these celebrated love stories even a reflection of love? Love is meant to be the food of life and yet it is so often the destroyer in these cases.
Can these even be called love when all they hail is death? It makes you wonder if we are celebrating the ultimate form of selfishness and an act of thievery.
These are not examples of love. These are examples of love gone awry. Love is a type of transcendence it should make you want to be a better person in all aspects of your life, to raise you up in a sense. It should not make you want to throw reason out the window and forget about everything that was important to you before (ex. your family and friends) if anything romantic love should also make you appreciate those things more. Love is about sharing not taking.
People have the idea that Faith and Reason are at odds, but love and reason are also painted as polar opposites by our society. Don't think with your head this is a matter of the heart. What do you feel? That is ridiculous! I'm not going to pretend that love doesn't get your reason a bit muddled sometimes, but that is no basis for throwing intelligent thought out the window. True love should enhance things not tear things down, not ruin lives.
Disclaimer: I am not immune to girly fits of romantic euphoria when watching or reading these tragic love stories, I just believe people should not hang their hats on a 'love' like that.
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