Why is the world so crazily addicted to romance and this great idea of Valentine’s Day on February 14? Why is the Philippines more romantically expressive than other Asian countries, according to a recent Siemens Mobile survey? Why is it that our so-called Strong Republic seems more interested in knowing if poor little rich girl Kris Aquino will ever find true love in basketball player Rommel Adducul than knowing about GMA’s National Security Council meeting with other politicians to discuss possible USA war on Iraq? Is love at first sight for real or another myth of self-delusion or a self-fulfilling fantasy? Why is it that the news that there will not be a Valentine’s Day wedding between Hollywood lovers actor Ben Affleck and superstar Jennifer Lopez such an interesting news published worldwide?
Is it a coincidence that many of the world’s most unforgettable movies like Titanic, Gone with The wind, Sleepless in Seattle, Shakespeare in Love and others have fantastic love stories? Even China’s famed director Zhang Yimou, the creator of the Jet Li- starrer Hero, is highly noted for his poignant love story film The Road Home. The Taj Mahal in India is one of the world’s most lavish monuments to a man’s love for a woman.
Does love really make the world go round? Even if the answer is no, love surely makes the trip worthwhile. Is romantic love overrated and a myth according to cynics, who accuse writers, Hollywood producers, marketing firms and others of this grand conspiracy to keep the rest of the world perpetually hooked on multi-billion dollar industries such as romantic movies, perfumes as love potions, greeting cards, cell phone text messages, fashion, cosmetics, flowers, restaurants and other businesses? E. C. McKenzie said: "The loneliest place in the world is the human heart when love is absent."
Were teenagers Romeo and Juliet wrong or right? A top Filipino businessman recently commented to Philippine STAR: "If you write about romantic love as a future topic, I hope you will say that Romeo and Juliet were both wrong, their parents knew better, because the two of them were still underaged and I think they were just teenagers. How could they know better and have the emotional maturity to decide? We parents have only the interests of our children at heart, love and long-term commitment to another person are not trivial matters to be decided only by sheer emotions." There is no doubt that Romeo & Juliet, the literary work by genius William Shakespeare, remains one of the world’s most popular literary masterpieces.
Is love truly blind? How then do we explain the seemingly horrific love partner choices of many people and their foolish mistakes in the name of romance? Was Edward VIII, the powerful King of England, and the then mighty British Empire blind when he chose to abdicate his throne in order to marry a not-so-goodlooking American divorcee Wallis Simpson? Is Prince Charles blind in his seemingly hopeless love for Camille Bowles, instead of his much beautiful and infinitely more glamorous wife, the late Princess Diana Spencer? Should we decide purely using our emotions, which may be unreliable and unpredictable, or weigh our love choices more soberly using our brains and logic? The Jewish rabbi Julius Gordon has his own opinion. He said: "Love is not blind–it sees more, not less. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less."
One of the great lovers in history is Italian gambler, traveler and writer Giovanni Jacopo Casanova (1725 to 1798). He once translated Homer’s Iliad and wrote books. He once visited the great French writer Voltaire in Switzerland and interviewed Russia’s famous Catherine the Great. He died a librarian to Count von Waldstein in a castle in Dux, Bohemia. A man who lived and loved by his wits, Casanova was tall and powerfully built. Like most writers (ehem), he was allegedly an incurable romantic, who constantly fell in love over and over and over again. What is the secret to Casanova’s popularity with women all over Europe from all social classes, whom he claimed to have sincerely loved? He explained his phenomenal successes in wooing so many women, claiming: "There was not a woman in the world who could resist constant attentions."
Another great lover in history was the Italian actor who became a legend in Hollywood, Rudolph Valentino (1895 to 1926), whose real name was Rodolfo Guglielmi di Valentina D’Antonguolla. He embodied a sexual-fantasy Hollywood image which was almost beyond compare, that up to this day, his name is still synonymous with being the "Great Lover." Valentino once advised: "To generalize on women is dangerous. To specialize on them is infinitely worse."