Valentine’s Day is commonly associated with red roses and hearts.

For those of us who are single (and not necessarily ready to mingle), it’s easy to dismiss Valentine’s Day as something reserved for those who have been hit by Cupid’s arrow. But it doesn’t have to be just for people with a boyfriend or a girlfriend. The 14th of February is a day for love – though in all fairness, love should be spread all year around.
While doing a briefing recently, the head of school told us to “learn, laugh, and love”. That last word made me think a bit. Learning is obviously the most important part of going to school, and laughter also has its part to play. But I wondered what kind of love he meant – if it was love for learning, or something else altogether. It turned out that the love that he meant is the same love I mean today: the kind of love that embodies compassion, understanding, and care for others.

Love isn’t just used in the romantic sense, or in relation to one’s family, and closest friends. It can be used and expressed in a variety of ways — by sharing willingly with others, showing compassion when they need it, and a multitude of other ways.

There are occasions when we take the word “love,” and even the term “I love you” lightly. We say it to our friends, and sometimes even to people we aren’t even all that close to. And while there’s nothing wrong with saying that we love our friends, it is also important to remember what that term truly means. As a certain Mr Oo said recently, when we say that we love, we should truly love.