Shout-out of the Week: Love

Since Valentine's Day is on Thursday, I want to take this opportunity to shout-out love, an ever-present force in our lives. Because love occupies so much of our psyches, it has an immeasurable effect on the things we create.

This article was originally published on elephantjournal.com.

Photo: Leland Francisco

For as long as we can remember, we have been in love with love.

Ancient texts speak of it. Wise men explicate it. Lonely men pine for it.

We write about it, we paint pictures of it, we take pictures of it. We try desperately to understand this enigma that seems to elude us, while, at once, being all around us.

Music is one way to capture and relate those things that we cannot comprehend. It is there for us when meager words are not enough. Or when we feel something we don’t quite understand, but want to share with others.

Ergo, the love song.

“What is love?” Nestor Haddaway asks us in his 1993 hit.

I will not even attempt to define it. Love has so many facets, so many levels, so many manifestations — I dare not say I fully know it. Instead, I have chosen a few popular love songs, written over the span of several decades, that embody the way I feel about this forever evasive, yet constantly present, miracle.

Fever - Peggy Lee

Higher and Higher - Jackie Wilson

In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel

And a little something from my lifetime—

Ain't No Other Man - Christina Aguilera

What love songs speak to you? Take a moment and comment below.

Bonus: Love, according to an ancient text.

“Love is patient; love is kind. It does not envy; it does not boast; it is not proud. It is not rude; it is not self-seeking; it is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-8