Today is valentines day. Yet another one of those days to use symbols as a substitute for the things the represent. Valentines day, whether by design or accident, is a ploy to sell greeting cards, flowers, and such things in the name of love. So much so that we think: If I don't get something from my partner for valentine's day, the mustn't love me. This has taken on psychotic proportions. We've replaced actual human connection and sensuality with a box of chocolates. This of course, is not a new phenomenon. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc are all ways to separate you from your money. But even worse to create an obligation to do something and be somewhere merely because an arbitrary calendar tells us, that some day is here.

Our culture has so ingrained the importance of the symbolic into us, that we can hardly tell the difference between our simulated reality and reality itself. Anytime we assume a role, become something, or become somebody, we are, in fact creating a division in ourselves. To live, act, and be, as we truly are requires no commentary, no commentator, and no description. We just are. Our true intrinsic motivation requires no label and (most of the time) no external action. If you have to force yourself to do something all the time, then there is something wrong. Either in that you don't actually want the thing you're forcing yourself to do, that you are stuck on some sort of emotional carousel, or some combination of both.

So you might ask, so what is the solution? There isn't one. Your life can only be lived by you... but if you fall prey to all of these things, you are, in fact, not living your life. If you can find that place, where the words cease, and you can feel life, and yourself, and the world around you without those labels and pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words, but the thing itself without words and pictures is worth billions of both.