Would you agree that we, as human beings, are constantly finding excuses to celebrate? Every New Year is kick-started with festivities followed by a general air of something new. Only we do it! And just when that merriment dies down, February comes closer, and the mood shifts to Valentine’s Day.

A day known to be loved by some, dreaded by others, and altogether irrelevant to some more…

This year, however, we find ourselves in a philosophical frame of mind. So as the day approaches, apart from figuring out what we’d be doing for our significant others, we dive deeper into the concept of love, to then question whether we need a day specifically dedicated to celebrate it at all?

To add to the complexity, there are different kinds of love as well. There’s the I-hate-you-but-I-love-you kind of family love, the because-I-love-you-I-will-make-fun-of-you kind of friendship love, there is the I-will-break-his or her-neck-if-he or she-hurts-you kind of sibling love, the I-want-to-spend-the-rest-of-my-life-with-you kind of romantic love, and so on…

Valentine’s Day is almost always about the last kind, but sometimes we find it borderline comical that out of 7 billion people in the world, we expect to end up with one person who ends up meaning everything to us (checkout “The One” on Netflix). We end up feeling so strongly about that one person, yet fail miserably if asked why.

Spoiler alert – although this blog was meant to be about defining love, there really is not one way to do it. What we can however do, is share a random image that comes to mind when we think of love.

True love, to us is like a shiny red balloon soaring across a clear blue sky.

Yes, it might seem childish that after writing about three hundred words on the topic, we arrived with an image that a five year old could have conjured up in less than two minutes, but then, there is something that just feels so childlike when one is in love, isn’t it?

Think about the crazy, weird, things that people have done in the name of love. And we’re not talking Shah Jahan and the Taj Mahal kind of love. We’re talking of the things like the busiest people dropping things and being there, or even the most rigid people wanting to wear matching pyjamas to bed, or making hand drawn cards kind of stuff. 

To define it in this light then, we could say that on one hand, being in love is opening yourself up to things that you never knew you were capable of. On the other, loving someone is being able to liberate them from the shackles of their own mind.

For example, logic might tell you that “Woman!” or “Man!”, “you have not stepped in the kitchen for your entire life, what makes you think that you can walk in and prepare a kickass meal for your partner today?!”. But not love. Love will be that crazy, over-enthusiastic voice going “wohooooooooooo! Let’s do this!” for the most random things in your head, and whether you’re on the giving or receiving end, in both cases, there is a deep-rooted sense of empowerment, freedom, and excitement.

Moving on to the latter bit of our musings on the topic, about why we need a day to celebrate love, we have arrived at one honest conclusion – we don’t…need to question every single thing in life. Yes, ideologically you must celebrate being in love every single minute of every single day, but that doesn’t mean getting flowers, going on dates, making blanket tents indoors and playing your favourite movie, all the time! In order to be able to even afford these things, you have to go to work, handle the house, and just…generally, live life.

We agree that a lot of these things also are taken care of by partners together, but there’s very little room for romance when you’re trying to calculate taxes and paying the bills, doing laundry, and things like that. Ok, yes, you can make laundry romantic, but that’s for another time :) The point for now is that if you need an excuse to take a pause and just forget everything else and focus on what your partner and you have been through, achieved together, how you’ve grown in the relationship, or even just kick back and relax for a while, who are we to question it?!

Besides, at Sexy Beast, we have always, always, resonated with those who strive to be the best version of themselves, and in some ways, that is exactly what being in love feels like. This year, along with the last, and the one before that, we are once again in a state of uncertainty. Some couples are still apart, some in quarantine together, some in self-isolation, some just entering a new relationship, some on the verge of asking each other out…wherever you are, just take this day this year to celebrate all kinds of love that has come your way, including, and most importantly, the love you show yourself as well.

Don’t overthink it, don’t question it, and if you don’t feel like it, don’t listen to us either…just do what makes you happy man. Set yourself free, just like a shiny red balloon soaring across a clear blue sky.