The Love you Take

Today is a holiday that inspires a multitude of emotion from people – and I am not talking about the lovey-dovey kind. Many people despise Valentine’s Day and the commercialism of it, the peer pressure to proclaim your feelings from the mountain tops. And with the shops bringing out the red and pink earlier each year, it’s easy to avert your eyes from all its overpriced mainstream glory and focus on the coming of February 15th.

A Valentine’s years ago while I was in college, I got more gifts and cards than any year before. The only thing different about this year from the ones before is that I was single for the first time in five years and away at university for my Freshman year. I received candy and trinkets from my parents and my Memere; my next door neighbor sent me a dozen cookies. My aunt sent pink accessories. Without a ‘special someone’ in the traditional sense, love poured from many ordinary sources often overlooked by Hallmark or Cadbury. My first year at college was terribly hard and it was the ordinary love of the people around me that helped me get through and actually go back the following year.

Today I will celebrate my first Valentine’s Day as a married woman (gasp). We decided not to do presents and we only made the decision to go out tonight in the last few days, because for us every day is a day to appreciate the love we have. But I always consider Valentine’s Day a reminder to treasure and share the love I have all around me. Your friends and parents, siblings and coworkers, anyone who is special to you deserves to be remembered and appreciated, so let today be the day. It doesn't have to be a big gesture; send a card, bring someone chocolate, or simply text someone and wish them a great day.  Because in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Election Day 2012

Today is Election Day in the United States of America.  It is a close race and this evening promises to be a long night.  I have avoided election coverage, chose to not watch the debates, and have refused to discuss the situation with anyone other than my wife.  I have waited for this day to be over for the past six months and now face the last grueling hours.  The next 10 to 12 hours may be what is left of many of my freedoms. 

 

Under Mitt Romney, my marriage could be declared invalid and my wife barred from my hospital bedside.  My reproductive rights, my right to choose if and when I have children, and the protection from someone else’s definition of rape could all be jeopardized.  The negative influence would probably not end there, but I can barely bring myself to consider what else may change, disappear, evaporate.  

Romney and a large portion of the GOP threaten my family, my marriage, my love because of pure bigotry cloaked in self-righteous religion.  I have tried to be reasonable, cooperative, bi-partisan – as President Obama has – and we all see where that has gotten us.  I will not stand to be stripped of my basic rights as an American.  I will not tolerate hatred and bigotry, even if they brand me a crazed liberal, fem-nazi, anti-American.  I voted for myself, my gender, my sexuality, my race and every other, and for America.  I hope each and every one of you does the same.