Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentine Hearts are red not blue

By Infamous Hussy at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons
Valentine's Day shouldn't be something to shy away from. It's too bad that the focus is always on romantic love. There are so many kinds of love -- romantic love is only a small part of the picture. (Although it gets all the attention.) What about the love of a parent for a child, (and vice versa) or the love of a friend, or the love of mankind? We all share those kinds of love, even if we have never experienced romantic love. In fact, romantic love is so built up in our society, that we have unrealistic expectations about it.
So if the object of our desire doesn't measure up to some perfect ideal that Hollywood has convinced us we must have, or if the person isn't exactly like ourselves or isn't completely flawless, we might think they are not worthy of our time, let alone our affection.

Here are a few examples of different types of love.

In Despicable Me,  a cartoon from Universal studios, the main character is a super villain, full of evil plans to take over the world. His plan to steal a secret weapon using three adorable cookie selling orphan girls goes awry when his cold heart starts to thaw.  I love this scene where the villain (voiced by Steve Carrell) actually turns somewhat heroic in order to win a new unicorn for the youngest orphan after he had destroyed her favourite toy.

Despicable Me (2010)

Now if that's not love....LOL!


I have to admit that I will watch absolutely any movie with Dustin Hoffman in it. He hasn't disappointed me yet. In Rain Man, he plays an autistic man who has been institutionalized for most of his life.  Then his father dies and his brother, played by Tom Cruise discovers a brother he didn't know he had.  

Rain Man (1988)
This depiction of brotherly love takes quite awhile to develop as Raymond, (Hoffman's character) is quite difficult to manage, especially on this road trip. Charlie (played by Cruise) is very impatient and manipulative at first, but soon discovers, he can be patient and loving as well. Raymond also changes and it is heartwarming to watch these two very different brothers forge a loving relationship.



Now this movie is so UN-romantic it is a bit hard to take seriously at first.  This guy seems like the last type of person a woman would want to be in a relationship with, let alone father her child!  However, Seth Rogen gives us a perfect example of a guy who is much better than he seems.  Rather than try to review the movie myself, here is an excellent review on another blog.  Read review here.
Knocked Up (2007)
A very funny coming-of-age movie in the better-late-than-never department.



Love of self can be thought of as a selfish act, afterall, in our society there are far too many selfish individuals.  However, most women I know, who are in service-type careers, or are mothers or thoughtful daughters, sisters or friends often give willingly of themselves for others and find little time to do things just for themselves.
 A wise person knows that you need to take care of yourself first before you can be any use to others. So I was very proud of one of my sisters who, rather than bemoaning the fact that she was alone on her birthday, took herself out to a very nice restaurant, had a very nice meal with a glass of wine, and even had flowers delivered to her table! Rather than think (as some might) that it was a pathetic thing -- I think it was very positive and life affirming!  I was very proud of her!

Here are some of my favourite songs (with a love theme).

What About Love? / Heart
Ann Wilson (Heart) is a rock diva with a voice to rival the best male rockers. This video has the lyrics included so you can sing along with this power ballad from the 1980s.


This song could be one of my theme songs, as I am not very good at hiding my feelings. It is not such a bad thing to wear your heart on your sleeve! :)

I Can't Keep It In / Cat Stevens


This song is probably the most romantic of all my choices. It is also kind of sad as it deals with a love so strong that it transcends death.  But it is so soothing and entrancing that I totally love it!

Soul Meets Body / Death Cab for Cutie



Well, really Love IS all we need.  I can't get tired of this song!

All You Need is Love / The Beatles




Here is my Valentine to all you admirers of a certain bearded actor who is now in dwarf training in New Zealand!

Happy Valentines's Day

12 comments:

Maria Grazia said...

I can't see most of the pictures, P. I'm so sorry! Why not? But I can perfectly see the last one ;-) Our gorgeous bearded Valentine, RA! Thanks.

Phylly3 said...

Thanks for the feedback, Maria Grazia. I guess it is the Youtube videos which aren't showing up. Very sorry about that. I will try and find a replacement that might work.
If others will let me know if they can see all the pictures and/or videos I would appreciate it!

Fanny/iz4blue said...

I'm seeing everything just fine! Looking at it on Safari on my iPod Touch and it looks like all vids are mobile enabled!! Now off for my leisurely read!!

Summer said...

Lovely post! I agree about the different types of love. This day is for celebrating love and friendship!
Thanks for the gorgeous bearded Valentine! ;)

Musa said...

Love your post.

I used to be bothered by Valentine's day, but some years ago I decided to make it a day I acknowledged friends who had helped me in a special way during the year. I no longer dread the day.

Happy Valentine's Day

Fanny/iz4blue said...

I love this post because I was exactly pointing this out today to my many Brit twitter friends, as overseas it's mainly celebrated between lovers which leaves so many single people out! Besides I was fortunate to have a surprise Valentine visit; a girlfriend I rarely see one on one and love and it's variables was our topic too! Great song choices! Of course the Beatles song came up in our discussion about #sharingthelove *_*

Phylly3 said...

@Summer @Musa -- Thank you for visiting and leaving such kind comments!
I just don't like to see anyone get depressed about a day on the calendar. Plus I don't like all the hyped up advertising about "romance". But, of course, I DO love romance!
@iz4blue--Glad you like the song choices and thanks for the feedback about the videos. It turns out that the reason they weren't showing up on some people's browsers had to do with Youtube's new embed code which only supports Flash or HTML5 Video. I had to re-embed all the vids to the "old embed code". I hope they are showing up for everyone now!

Avalon said...

Happy Valentine's Day

Maria Grazia said...

Thanks Phylly! Now your post is tremendously gorgeous!!! I can see all the clips and all the pics! Good job. MG

Phylly3 said...

@Avalon -- Hope you had a lovely day! Thanks for stopping by! :)
@Maria Grazia -- Thank you very much! I am glad the videos are working for you now. I will have to ensure I use the old embed code for videos now. Unfortunately, that also means they won't show up on mobiles.
Sorry iz4blue!

Anonymous said...

What a gorgeous Armitage valentine. Yummm.

§arah said...

Bahahaha! That clip from Despicable Me is the best part of the movie. It's so FLUFFY!!!