I love love.

Not the kind of love that you often find around Valentine’s Day tho. I’m talking about the type of love you can find all year round – if you know where to look.

According to data put forth by the National Retail Federation (NRF), Valentine’s Day is a $27.4 billion industry in the United States that keeps on growing and growing.

The NRF statistics clearly show there is some form of “love” circulating around the globe.

That important Feb. 14 date pumps massive amounts of revenue back into the economic vortex of doom too, and it generates an obscene amount of jewelry, flowers, chocolate and fine wine for the masses as a result.

The human experience of producing and consuming what is known as “chocolate” in the month of February alone is astronomical, with an estimated $58 million pounds of it being produced every single year.

So, we humans (mainly Americans) have a massive circulation of V-Day themed goods circulating the planet on a yearly basis.

I see this system and I am in awe of what it has become. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I wish some actual love could tap into that circulation a bit more in this phenomenal equation.

I’m talking about the scary stuff that orbits somewhere outside all the flowers, perfume and expensive candy.

Things like participating in an actual conversation, being present, listening to someone and actually seeing the person in front of you.

Things like the love for family, adoration and mutual support? Are these words foreign for most of us now? I also think “being in love” means becoming part of a minority nowadays.

The odds aren’t in your favor to have a faithful partner anymore either, especially for women. Temptation is in the market and cheating has become mainstream.

It seems “love” has been siphoned out of the physical world and it now manifests itself somewhere in a digital realm. Thanks to Tinder, Instagram, Twitter and all the other “social networking programs,” love is more of a capitalized venture.

Based on my perspective and years of love research, the market dictates experiencing a quick love, or some sort of quick fix.

The clever programs cater to the artificial now and market connection like it were some top dollar chocolate. On some levels, I see that love is being held captive inside a well-oiled and vicious consumption machine.

I write this report today as I process what has been done to the beautiful concept of being in love with another human being. I don’t apply what’s been done to love or celebrate the “holidays” of it for very specific reasons.

Being in love and falling out of love is a big reason, but losing a loved one has played a much bigger role in figuring it all out.

Losing a loved one showed me how fragile life is.

Everything can come to an end in an instant, so losing someone showed me how important it is to love the people around you any chance you can get.

I think processing love and lost love doesn’t mean stopping either. For me, being in love with an individual or the people in your life can only be described as a crawl.

A crawl toward understanding another person and family, while at the same time experiencing a crawl toward an understanding of yourself.

You can’t buy any of that. Sorry not sorry.

Note: This editorial was originally published in “The Mariposa Gazette” on 02-09-2023.