Love, Love, Love

Last month, I decided to add a "Quote of the Month" on here. So, in my search for a quote to go on here for the month of February, I decided to Google "Love Quotes." I pulled up 2,150,000,000 results! So, I Googled love songs, because let's face it, some of the best quotes out there about love are found in songs. According to http://www.lyricsplanet.com/ there are 3,419 songs with the word “love” in the title.

All You Need Is Love... Love Makes the World Go Round... Love Is A Many Splendored Thing... The Greatest Love Of All... Can't Buy Me Love... It's Only Love... Love Me Do... Love Me Tender... I Just Called To Say I Love You... Can You Feel the Love Tonight... How Deep Is Your Love... P.S. I Love You... Real Love... My Love... I Want To Know What Love Is... How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You... Sea Of Love... This One Goes Out To the One I Love... Don't You Want Somebody To Love... To Know Her Is To Love Her... To All the Girls I've Loved Before... To Sir, With Love... You've Got To Hide Your Love Away... Calling Dr. Love... Let Love Rule... My Endless Love... I Can't Help Falling In Love With You... Freeway Of Love... Crazy Little Thing Called Love... Lost In Love... Jesus Loves Me... Have I Told You Lately That I Love You... With Love... Without Love... In And Out Of Love... You Look So Good In Love... When I Fall In Love, It Will Be Forever... If I Fell In Love With You... Love Of My Life... I Love the Way You Love Me... Baby, I Love Your Way... Woke Up In Love This Morning... I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song... I'm the Man Who Loves You... In the Name Of Love... Say You Love Me... Is This Love... Is That the Way Love Goes... Isn't She Lovely... Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me... No Greater Love Than This... Love Is A Battlefield... Love Is A Beautiful Thing... Love Is Blind... Love Is Here To Stay... Love Walks In... Love On the Rocks... Love Potion Number Nine... Love To Love You, Baby... Love Will Find A Way... Love Will Keep Us Together... Love Without End, Amen...

I won't name all 3,419 songs. And still, one could even argue that the best love songs of all times don't even have the word love in the title. Songs like Always and Forever, Ribbon in the Sky, Betcha By Golly Wow, We've Only Just Begun, In Your Eyes, Just the Way You Are, Maybe I'm Amazed, Could I Have This Dance, Danny's Song, In My Life, Something, You're Still the One, Annie's Song, and You Are So Beautiful immediately come to mind. All of these songs have memorable lines and familiar lyrics that I could have quoted on here, but none of them seemed to fill my need as the perfect quote.

I'm sure that Hector is like a lot of men out there. He doesn't really see the need for Valentine's Day. He thinks the holiday was made up by people working in the candy, floral and greeting card businesses, as a way to make more money in between Christmas and Easter. And he might just have a valid point. In an article entitled "The Not-so-mushy Statistics of Valentine's Day" Neoli Marcos writes:

"Valentine's Day has often been criticised as just an excuse for consumerism, an opportunity for businesses. Consequently, the well-meaning tradition of sending Valentine cards has also been unfairly stained by cynics everywhere, as if it is Hallmark's fault that people are only sending cards perfunctorily, without thought at all, but just to get over the holiday. Indeed, Valentine's Day is the second largest card-exchanging holiday next to Christmas, making Hallmark the unmistakable industry leader. Half of the U.S. population celebrates Valentine’s Day by purchasing at least one greeting card, according to Hallmark. And last year, according to an MSNBC report, Americans spent as much as $13.7 billion last Valentine's Day, up 22 percent from just five years ago."

I am a romantic, though. So, I feel the need to set Hector (and everyone else like him) straight. Here's the real reason we celebrate Valentine's Day. During the third century, Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius II. It would seem that Claudius was having trouble getting men to serve in his army. He felt men were not volunteering to join because they did not want to leave their wives and families behind. He thought that if men were not married, they would join the army. So Claudius passed a new law which did not allow any more marriages. Now at this same time there was a young minister named Valentine, who did not support the new law. And even after Emperor Claudius passed the law, Valentine kept performing marriage ceremonies secretly. One night he was caught, and thrown in jail. Many young people came to visit Valentine. One of them was the daughter of the prison guard. Soon the two fell in love. When the prison guard found out, he ordered Valentine to be put to death. On the day of his death, Valentine wrote a note to the prison guard's daughter, signing it, "To My Beloved, From Your Valentine." The date was February 14, 269 A. D. And that is why February 14 is celebrated as Valentine's Day.

I honestly can't remember the first time Hector told me that he loved me. But I can remember the first time he wrote it to me in a letter, because I still have the first love letter he gave to me. Yes indeed, I am a sentimental fool. :-) What can I say? When it's true love, you just know it... I pulled the letter out from it's hiding place just the other day. In that love letter, Hector wrote, "With each passing day, I find myself falling deeper in love with you. We are so different, in so many ways. But our love for each other continues to grow stronger. I love you with all my heart."

I'm getting all teary-eyed just typing those words here, because of the way Hector's written words made me feel at the time he wrote that letter to me some 21 years ago. So, in my search for a quote to go on here this month, as I was trying to sort through the 2 billion quotes about love that Google pulled up, I was considering putting another quote on here until I stumbled across this quote from Helen Keller that seemed to fit the bill of the perfect quote.

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart."

It's true - I don't need a letter or any other gift from Hector on Valentine's Day to know that he loves me, because I feel it in my heart each and every day. It's something I have felt since the very beginning of our relationship. Still, even if it's just one day a year, it sure is nice to be given a gift... something that can be seen and touched... something that serves as an external token of affection for an internal emotion... love, love, love!

Happy Valentine's Day, with love, from The 5 Aces.