Editorial
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 13, 1998

Love, baby, love

"Love is a wonderful thing," sang the bard. "Makes you smile through the pouring rain."

And tomorrow we will celebrate that purist, most powerful emotion.

Yes, it's Valentine's day Saturday and a time to reflect on l'amour.

It was folksinger Judy Collins who, in the 1970s, compared love to clouds and found out she did not know love, at all. She looked at love from both sides, from win and lose, and still somehow it was love's illusions she recalled.

Indeed this Saturday will be a day of illusion, covering the wounds and strains of bad marriages with roses, hiding the discomfort of early-relationship dating with manicotti.

Today, on Friday the 13th, we can consider those times when our illusions were dashed; those times when love was more bad luck and black cats, affairs, divorces and boredom than red balloons and chocolate-covered cherries.

But, don't we, like so many charging light brigadiers, throw ourselves onto the battlefield, be it the bar, or the classroom, or the bus stop. We are ultimate warriors. Indeed, if we could harness the energy we put into pursuing and keeping the flame of ardor, we could have conquered the world in the name the American brand of democratic capitalism 200 years ago.

From the "I Love You" banners around the Memorial Student Union's information desk to the chintzy plastic cupids of a 99-cent store, you will not avoid the love. You will feel the love whether you enjoy feeling the love or not. The love is there and wants you to open your wallet and buy those flowers for someone, anyone. It doesn't matter.

Tomorrow night whether you have a hot date, or face a night of lonely teardrops and off-brand tequila, remember the words of Tesla.

"Love will find a way, find its way back to you."