What’s Love got to do with It?

What’s Love got to do with It?

Today is Wednesday 14th February 2024. The date is celebrated as Valentine’s day. A day when hundreds of people celebrate love with their partners and loved ones. The day has an interesting history, based on Saint Valentine. The story is told that St Valentine wedded couples against the laws of his time, thus celebrating and promoting love. He was killed for that. He died for what he believed in, Love. 

Incidentally, today is also Ash Wednesday. It is a day marked by traditional Christian churches signifying beginning of  the Lent season. Lent marks forty days of fasting, prayer and almsgiving for spiritual purposes.

I have been reflecting on this co-incidence and wondering what intersects the two celebrations: Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday. They seem worlds apart, yet today they are marked on the same day.

Love is the notion that emerged during my reflection. Immediately, the question arose: “What’s love got to do with it?”

Interestingly, that was the title of Tina Turner’s hit song released in 1982. In this song, Tina Turner plays the part of a woman who enjoys the carnal encounters with her lover, but feels no emotional attachment. She wants him to know that there's nothing more to it, as for her it's purely physical. Their relationship has nothing to do with love, which she dismisses as "a sweet, old-fashioned notion.” (https://www.songfacts.com/facts/tina-turner/whats-love-got-to-do-with-it)

You may ask, “but what has this got to do with anything?” That is a fair enough a question. I also asked myself the same question. 

I would like to suggest that Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday are all about love. In fact I would attempt to say, Divine Love. The kind of love that is pure, giving and self-less. Hence today, for me it, it is Divine Love that the two celebrations coming together signify. Valentine's Day is about demonstrating love. In fact many couples set this day aside to celebrate the love they share and experience together. On the other hand, Ash Wednesday is letting go and focusing on the other, through fasting, prayer, and giving to those in need. This is what I would call love in action. While many teachings encourage mortification and self-sacrifice for the sake of the other, I also view it as setting aside time to grow in divine love for the sake of the other.

Even though Tina Turner had a perspective to the lyrics of the song, entitled, "What's love got to do with it?" I think one can also look at it from a different angle. In fact, in its purest form, Love is about giving without expecting anything in return. It is what informs and motivates our truest nature.

On another note: considering that we are still in the first quarter of 2024, I want to believe that we regularly make time to review and revise our annual intentions and resolutions. Because the intentions and resolutions that one sets for themselves is also about giving love, particularly self-love. 

What are you giving to yourself on this day? How are you loving yourself today? What will you do for the next forty days - in case you intend to follow the Lenten season as well, according to your faith? How will all of that help you to achieve your annual resolutions and intentions? 

Lastly but not least, as you think of becoming your better self during 2024, “What has Love got to do with It?”



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