Love

Valentines Day was yesterday. It's my favorite holiday of the year. 

Yes it is very commercialized and people spend way to much money every year on it, on flowers, and chocolates, jewelry, and tacky teddy bears. 189 million stems of roses are sold every year on February 14th and it's second to Christmas in card purchases. I don't look at Valentines Day as a comercial holiday though, it's not a day to show people how much you love them either, that something that should be done everyday.

 I think Valentines Day is a day to just celebrate love, in general. That's why it is my favorite, it's a day to celebrate love and the freedom to love everyone around you. No one can tell you who to love, or where, or why, or when to love, that's something that is completely your own. Call me crazy but I really like the story of Saint Valentine and the solders of Claudius the II and the blind jailers daughter, be it fact or fiction or some sort of mix. That wasn't a story of a day of love, but a celebration of it for a life time and beyond.

 Signed your Valentine.

Now being an aspiring neuroscientist I understand the chemicals (and lack there of) and neurotransmitters responsible for "love". ie; adrenaline, dopamine, norepinephrine, phenylethylamine, serotonin, oxytocin, vasopression, endorphins, and others. It's all about how the neuro network interacts. It's how we were programed, it's something that can almost be predicted and possibly will be in the future. Being in love is almost like having a mental illness, the lack of serotonin for example is very similar to how your brain reacts in someone who suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Yep thats right, being in love can trigger obsessive thoughts and feelings similar to the obsessive and compulsive acts and feelings of OCD. 

Most people would say love is an emotion, I would have to disagree, I believe love is a motivation. I think there are emotions in love, such as euphoria, even stress and anxiety, but love is that driving force, it is a constant core feeling. It influences our every move, the other person becomes a goal in life. Love is the motivation. Love is a basic survival technique, its natures own reward system.