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Love Is Not An Event

Feature Article Love Is Not An Event
FEB 15, 2019 LISTEN

I hardly do write on relationship. I am certainly not an expert in that area but I think it is time everybody held an opinion on this subject matter of love. This is so because it has become the heart of society and every individual is in one way or the other initiated or yet to be initiated into it.

Being the heart of society portrays its significant role in our lives. The love we so much talk about goes beyond the intimacy relationship between the opposite sex. That narrowness or hollowness in the description has not contributed to societal values.

Society continues to denigrate because of too much segregation and discrimination. This sad scenario has defeated the essence of love, making people so heartless that they careless of others. Be that as it may, in the broader sense of love, let me attempt to zero down my discussion to an intimate love relationship between partners.

I am told today is Valentine's day, a day of love. I am not an ardent celebrant of this occasion but I wish to extend my best wishes to all friends and relatives who celebrate same. May we appreciate this day, renew our love and resolve to live differently.

Today, I am unable to take you through the historical perspective of Valentine but I must say that we have overly deviated from the essence of the day. The day is now a day for all sorts of profane and mundane things: from the clubbing, the dining, the wining to the indiscriminate sex. People think that celebrating or commemorating love is tantamount to sexual promiscuity. The youth especially have redefined love and this special day.

That day that is supposed to be a commemoration of love has always been a sorrowful precedent. Many partners rather remember this day as a day of cheating, sex, gifts and sometimes fights. Many people will remember this day in regrettable feelings because it is that day they recorded teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, rape, broken heart, and other negative occurrences. This is largely orchestrated by our own misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the day.

Today, as I write this short piece, many a youth are thinking of how they will dress in their red expensive dresses, club tonight, drink alcohol and have sex all night.

Alas! that is how we have come to understand Valentine's day. That is the justification for my lack of interest in the many activities of this day.

I love and I like to be loved. I am also not an angel, I have my shortfalls but I think that the open display of immorality in the name of a supposedly sacred day of love is nauseating!!

I think that love is just not an event that should be celebrated and forgotten about only to be celebrated on the next coming 14th of February. Real love flows like a stream that never dries. The direction never changes but the waves keep shining and bubbling to the admiration of those who take time off to watch them. Love must be demonstrated every day to the fullest, it must be expressed every day with passion and it must be remembered every day in nostalgia and ecstasy.

Valentine's day only symbolised true love and not a day for love. It is a day of love not for love. We must use that day to introspect the gains and losses we have made in our relationships so as to rebuild and make it stronger, it is a day to reflect and renew our love and a day to, at our individual levels renew our vow of love. However that it may come should not be a deviation from the standard of morality. Is what you are doing right in your conscience? Think again within you.

The moral society and relationship counselors have not done enough to educate we the young ones hence we continue to devalue the essence of Valentine's day. It is sad to say.

More relationship seminars should be organised to engage the youth on such a special day, aim at disabusing the minds of the vulnerable youth who are getting drawn into the mundaneness and profaneness precipitated by misunderstanding of the essence of the day.

If you dare carry out research using celebrants as your respondents on the essence of this day, you would get a shock of your attempt because their responses would present to you, a vivid contradiction of the reality. The truth is covered completely with exaggeration of scenarios and expression of falsified and unholy feelings.

Let the youth be reminded that our lives are needed by this nation and our families. We are the future of this country. What we do today determines the success of our individual lives and the progress and prosperity of mother Ghana. We don't have to use all our arsenals on sex, drinking alcohol and expecting magic from our leaders to transform our lives. Let this resonates in our minds that we need to protect our lives than anybody can protect us.

Let it not be misinterpreted that I am discouraging others from celebrating this day. I am sure some others understand this day and will celebrate it justifiably within that historical framework but let those who didn't know the real value and scope of love but narrow it down to wearing red, clubbing, drinking and having sex, be admonished.

Once again, I wish all my readers, a successful day of love.

Stay blessed and enjoy your day.

Barika!!

Ngmen-na-eng-fanga

Denis Andaban

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