Jive for Five!

Love is.....
Love is a union of people oft separated by circumstance but joined by mutual experience and emotion.
It is a time-tested fuel that warms the hearth of human evolution. It is the basis of religion, the inspiration behind art, the backbone of all civilized notions and the cause celebre of humanity. Bereft of love, action is mechanical and reaction if fruitless, poems are just words that rhyme, nature is boring and god is dead. What use is imagination if concocted without love? What use has excellence if not tempered with love? Why breathe at all?

We are creatures of dust and clay who achieve divinity in the temporal moments we are in love. With the world reeling from the effects of its own folly, and the nation coping with the havoc wrought by its vices, the citizens of Planet Life have been searching for the ultimate panacea. Seeking miracles and answers, we build fantastic machines and Babel Towers made of steel. We look for love in the wrong places. We often fail to notice two people sitting on a park bench holding hands.

Love is a union or people oft separated. On occasion, those two hands have to let go. There is nothing more painful that the separation of people who have found each other. It is hard enough to find anyone, to start with. In a world of seven billion humans connected by a maximum of sex degrees, singling out just one person to possess, and who can possess us, is a quite a challenge indeed. So when that elusive accident occurs at last, it is only natural that we hold it to our chest, clasp it tightly with two miserly hands, hope that love remains within the radius of an extended arm.

But life is a turbulent river, too. On many occasions, it is when we find an ideal match that fate strikes with the cruelest irony of separation. For school, for work, for family, for whatever reason - numerous couples have had to deal with heretofore indulgent proximity suddenly turning on its heels. The circumstance, though fair and practical, always feel unfair and impractical. There is the cost of maintaining a long-distance relationship, the unsettling suspiciousness borne of ignorance, and the devastating absence of the one person in this whole wide world who can make you smile without trying.

Love is a union. We persist, of course. As foolish and ill-fated as it may seem, our romantic sentiment demands, that we may attempt to accomodate this set-back, and assimilate it into the history of our mutual experience. This is a test, we reason against reason, to see if our relationship can withstand the duress of distance and the rigors of time. If we get through this, we shall be a stronger unit. Our story shall become a template for all couples, a legend to attest to the strength of love, unconquered by physical expanse or petty emotion. After all, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? None of these adages make us feel any better, or alleviate the yearning, or lessen the pain. But we persist.

The holidays are of particular strain to those who are apart. These days require affection, and when this ingredient is missing, the recipes this Christmas will lack distinct flavor. But should we capitulate to the cold logic of geography, should we surrender the ideal for a more convenient situation, should we settle for what is practical over what is sentimental? I think not. The fortunate few who have found love know that this is worth fighting for. The continents are but shallow walls that can be scaled through perseverance,a nd months are slow steps which lead to the evetual reunion. The world is a smaller place for those in love. All problems will be solved, all doubts shall be assuaged, and all the questions this mad world of infinite permutation can be satisfied by a single, simple answer.
Love.

By Martin ValdesPhilippine Daily Inquirer20-Dec-2003