I was listening to NPR this morning and they interviewed
Robin Wright, who plays Claire, and writer Beau Willimon from House of Cards. Season 2 is released for binge viewing today.
It was fascinating! I
agree with a lot of what they said. Love
is in fact transactional, and Claire and Frank’s relationship is self-serving,
sure, but one way to look at love is that that is what love is - a transaction to
fulfill your emotional, sexual, and even lifestyle needs. Anyone who denies this is either naïve or, well, in
denial.
We don’t like to look at love this way. We also don’t like to look at the origins of
the Valentine holiday. Every time you
have a saint, you have to have someone who was viciously murdered for their
beliefs. There’s a bunch of different stories about St. Valentine, but
generally he’s believed to have been killed for marrying Christians and
generally helping them, which was a crime at the time.
At its most basic, doesn’t this accord completely with our
idea of Valentine's? Someone died ~ was
martyred ~ helping couples in love. St.
Valentine is in fact the embodiment of love, much like Jesus: a martyr, someone
who gives of themselves and they are killed for it. That’s what we say: “I love
you so much, I would die for you.”
I guess it’s just in my nature to recognize the yin and yang
of everything. Love has a dark side, but
I would also be the first to acknowledge that it is the force that moves the
world. It’s the force of all good in the
world.
May your life be filled with love.
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