Written by: Ari Campbell
When February rolls around, there is only one thing on everybody’s mind (and no, it’s not the Super Bowl). It’s Valentine’s Day.
Amidst the flurry of pink hearts, red roses, Hershey kisses, and flowery words, it’s easy to ascribe an artificial meaning to the word, love. Let’s dig deeper than the conventional Valentine’s-Day-definition of love and pry into the minds of Providence Academy students and faculty. What do they believe love is?
Pre-K students shared similar answers: “Love is Mary,” Keerthan Cherukuri replied. “Love is Jesus,” Hazel Johnson said. “Love is God,” Charlie Eick added. “Love is my sister, Brigid,” responded Maren McCulloch.
Senior girls shared more drawn-out answers: “Love is the little things you might not see in the moment but look back on and see their impact,” expressed Fiona Foster and Annabelle Whitaker.
“Love is late night conversations with my mom about anything and everything. She always knows exactly what to say,” Delaney Flanigan stated.
“Love is sitting with my siblings and reminiscing about our favorite childhood memories,” Caroline Stephenson responded.
“Love is when my dad always starts my car for me before I go anywhere,” Amelie Threinen said.
“Love is when my friends ask me to text them when I get home,” Keira Marshall answered.
“Love is sacrifice,” Elizabeth Fahnlander, ‘28, asserted.
“Love is a state of compassion when one cares for another, despite any flaws. It is pure affection. If it is true love, then it is unconditional,” said Destiny Ditto, ‘28, after careful consideration.
Students are not the only ones who harbor profound insights about love. Dr. Biebieghauser, using a movie analogy, expressed, “My favorite synonym for ‘love’ is ‘attention.’This echoes the central thesis of one of my most formative essays, Simone Weil’s ‘Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies, with a View to the Love of God,’ in which she argues that the main reason we should all work hard at learning as much as we can about the world is that it develops our capacity to pay attention to (that is, receive the love of) God. I’ve found it helpful to think of the attention that I pay to the people (and dog and city and church and books and music) in my life as a form of love.”
Dr. Keiser gave the deliberate response: “I think love is ‘tendency toward.’ It makes us go out of ourselves. Sometimes it pushes us outside ourselves. Sometimes it pulls us outside ourselves. Love pushes us when we already have a lot to give, and we feel compelled to share with others… Love pulls us when something, or, more powerfully, someone in particular attracts us…We do not have very much control over this kind of love; it happens to us. Often, it comes with a feeling that the other will complete us somehow, make up for something we lack… Both make us human…Sometimes, we can have both loves for the same person. That is a blessed thing.”
Though people gave a myriad of answers, there are many parallels; love isn’t romance–love is connection. Love isn’t chocolates in February–love is constant. Love isn’t something that can be defined in a short article–it can’t be analyzed using data and demographics. Love is something we don’t always see, something we don’t always notice, but it is undoubtedly present.