True Love Is…
by: Dave Ozment
The holiday card industry tells us that it is time to express our inner feelings to our significant others, or our strong prospects for such roles in our lives. So chocolates, hearts, teddy bears, flowers, lingerie, and yes cards will be flying off the shelves this weekend. But what really is true love… well, I know that true love is more than an emotion, emotions are too fleeting… football players will often enter a game wound up in the emotion of the contest but that goes away with the first slobber knocking hit. Love is more than just a physical act and having children is (at one level) simply biology at work.
Rather, love is lasting, it endures, it is willing to make an improbably long committment to something or someone. Love is willing to significantly and permentantly change the course of one’s own life… but not only change it’s course but also relinquish some control and decision making authority over the new joint course.
Love is the conviction that being together, joining forces, and partnering will enable not only a better future than each individual’s current state but also a better combined future than either individual’s projected future state. Wow, that starts to sound heavy… that starts to sound like a lot of responsibility…
…that starts to sound like job for Budget Nerd
If you want to make the most of this Valentine’s Day then you need to forget the cheesey cards and fattening chocolates and whip out the excel spreadsheets. Nothing shouts I LOVE YOU! more than a demonstrated willingness to plot a course to financial freedom and prosperity together. Nothing confirms that I’m in this deal for the long haul than taking control of your corporate future… a willingness to stand up and be man or woman who plans to acheive an envisioned future rather than the boyish or princess me-first spend-now entitlement-minded path to loser-ville.
So don’t be afraid to say what is really in your heart this year. Don’t be afraid to take a lasting stand in your relationship, don’t be afraid to say that ”I want to actively partner with you to set our course and build a better tomorrow rather than passively allow the winds of time to direct our path”.
Don’t be afraid to boldly and unconventionally step up and express your love in new ways… but just in case, you may want to have the flowers and cookies ready too…
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For me the valentine’s day is no so important, I think the anniversary days of the relationship are a lot more important and meaningfull.
Dave
Great insight,from a women’s perspective,spreadsheets would be nice,but when you are in love,it’s like nothing else matters. When you are with the one you love everyday is Valentine’s Day. I get flowers every week at my office. My honey brings me flowers from the grocery store on Saturdays, just because! It’s nice. So I think of Valentine’s Day as the day on the calendar for those that don’t remember it the rest of the year.
Love is a beautiful thing.
Great Blog!
@ JMac – thanks for sharing… my wife told me that she thinks that every day is Valentine’s Day. That made me feel good because it suggests that I must be doing something right… and it makes me feel good because I know my wife is happy. The radio is full of songs that tell us about the upside and downside of love but there’s a wide expanse in the middle. Part of my inspiration for this article was laying in bed thinking about the day to day routines that we live and how those moments fit into that expanse. How even the process of building and maintaining the business or operations side of the household can (and should) be done in such a way that is an expression – in a small way, like a tile in a mosiac – of the passion that should exist in our relationships.
Thanks again for your comments and kind words. I hope you’ll visit and engage the dialogue again!