Pure

I have always considered Pure by The Lightning Seeds to be one of the most perfect love songs. When I was a teenager, it described my dreams of a perfect, ideal love. Then I grew up and found that despite all my ideals and imaginations, love isn't uncomplicated or easy, it isn't all smiles and shooting stars. But far from feeling like the song is a lie, I realize it describes the hopes we have for our children, the way our love for them can make our hearts burst and our fears for their future can make our hearts break, how we wish them to have sleigh rides and moonlight, how we hope they will never have their hearts broken, never have to compromise their dreams, never know pain. How love for a child can make you love the partner who helped you make and raise the child, how the work of it creates a bond stronger than you ever could have imagined in the sparkle and shine. And how this love makes us better people.

It's what all the great love songs do, isn't it? They describe not only the love you dream of, they describe the loves you get.

Happy Valentine's Day.

P.S. If you don't go in for flowers and feel awe when you look at the night sky, the Rosette Nebula may well be the rose for which you are looking.