Love = Courage? My Thought On Valentine's Day

D. H. Lawrence, world famed author (1906) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Snow stopped, road cleared, my new "valentine" - newspaper came finally (Two days delayed though). A small article caught my attention: What is love? And the quote of D.H. Lawrence provoke the thought below:

D.H. Lawrence said that love is "having courage of your tenderness." How? How this tenderest act of humans can be interpreted as "courage"? In a cultural tradition that was built upon the absence of love, namely Chinese, love is one of the most coward traits of humans. Coldness, even cruelty are the showcase of "courage". Oh, I feel so sorry for this culture!

But still, why showing our tenderness is a courageous thing to do? Because, tenderness, represents a fully acceptance of another individual, an individual with consciousness, with a whole inner world that could be totally different from our own, yet so identical in a way. It is not another "person" we are afraid, it is another universe, an unknown entity that we are afraid of. It seems, that since human developed consciousness, nothing has been more frightening than "unknown". Death is frightening because it is "unknown", another culture can be frightening, because of unknown. And individual, the most complicated entity, with a whole different "soul", no doubt can be the most frightening subject. Thus, showing our tenderness to another person, to embrace this another "universe" unreservedly, is indeed a courageous act.

Yes, I have to agree with D.H.Lawrence on this, that the true heroes are those who dare to LOVE!

Happy Valentine's Day!