Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Love Lessons

Today my dance teacher gave us these instructions at the beginning of our warm-up: "Fall in love with yourself in the next hour." I tried to reconcile this with the hideous pink striped workout pants I was wearing, which was hard. Anyway, the cheesy exercised helped out later when I walked home down Columbus , warmed by the couples in restaurant windows and people walking down the street with flowers and wine.

But that kind of love is only one iteration of what Valentines Day celebrates. Love comes with so much other stuff, some of which I learned today. Warning: This isn't Cosmo:

1. No More Social Climbers
Marriage in America has changed from an emphasis on religion and background to -- yes, you guessed it -- money. So before, it was more important for a Jewish guy to find a Jewish girl, now it's more important that bank accounts match. Rich people are more likely to marry rich people, poor people more likely to marry poor. Of course there are confounding factors, but economic mobility via marriage, for better or for worse, is no longer what it was.

2. Damn
Conversation Hearts all taste the same.

3. And they thought we were prudes.
My friend Ashley sent me this Reuters article about the kiss. Apparently, the first documentation of a kiss was from the ancient Indian text, the Mahabaratha in 1000 BCE: "She set her mouth to my mouth and made a noise that produced pleasure in me," the poem said. Then, when Alexander the Great showed up in the motherland he picked up the custom and took it back via horse/elephant to Europe. Before that people just sniffed each other. This is especially funny to me, because it took so long for actors to kiss in Bollywood movies, and it still continues to be awkward. But come on, there are 1 billion people in the country, of course we invented the kiss.

4. Yes, that is a picture of Gandhi and Kasturba up there.
In terms of unconditional love, we're not scientifically sure if it exists, at least in the form of altruism. I personally have no doubts that it does, but here is more justification for expanding your idea for love: it makes you give of yourself, and that, in turn, makes you freakishly happy. Dr. Anthony Youn on CNN, after a long diatribe about how he hates V-day, mentions "Helpers High", a buzz you get from spreading the love.

5. Something in the way Pattie Boyd moved
We have this book at my parents house about George Harrison, and it mentions that "Something" is described as the perfect love song. A bunch of people seem to agree, and it certainly has had a permanent place on my play list for years. Harrison wrote the song for Pattie Boyd, who also later finagled the song "Layla" out of Eric Clapton. I guess she's like the Helen of Troy for classic rock even though neither guy ended up with her.

I leave you with this, the Greatest Love of All.

2 comments:

Cait said...

You are an incredible writer, and I'm so thankful to have you in my life as a constant example of altruism and unconditional love for friends! XOXO
- Cait

baba said...

Frank Sinatra said it was the best love song written. George Harrison borrowed the title from a James Taylor song of the same name. I Loved this Blog piece.