Valentine’s Day wasn’t created as a day to give out cards, candy or flowers.

It was actually started to remember someone who sacrificed his life to keep the right of marriage alive.

During the Roman Empire, under the rule of Emperor Claudi-us, the marriage of young couples was outlawed. This edict was sup-posed to cure the army of “love sickness” because young males would not have to worry about the fate of their wives or families.

The Christian church believed that marriage was an integral part of life, and therefore would not stop marriage ceremonies. Priest Valentine was an advocate of marriage and was performing illegal cer-emonies. Valentine was eventually caught, and the consequence of his “crime” was, unfortunately, death.

Because of his martyrdom, we get the term “val-entine.” While in jail, Valentine wrote many letters to his beloved friend, the daughter of the jail guard whom he sup-posedly healed of blindness. At the end of his letters he would sign them, “From your Valentine.”

According to one source, in AD 496 Sain Pope Gelasius I declared February 14 as “Valentine’s Day.” It spread throughout Europe and into the American colonies and now although not an official holiday, it’s celebrated in many countries all over the world.

So this Valentine’s day, buy flowers, candy and cards, and be thankful for the ones you love, just as St. Valentine was thankful for the people he loved.

D ig through your dresser; f ind your lucky red undies. Pay off your debt

and stop delaying that dreadful spr ing c leaning. To earn luck th is year, you may want to take a page f rom the Book of Tao.

We entered the Year of the Rabbit th is Chinese New Year on Feb 3. I f you happen to have been born in 1927, 1930, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987 or 1999, don’t st ress yoursel f over what was men-t ioned in the paragraph above. Accord-ing to the 12 Chinese Zodiac signs, you are considered a rabbit, you lucky bunny.

Literal ly, the rabbit is a sign of luck, and th is year is sa id to be especia l ly sign i f icant. The rabbit is sa id to be a quiet ly char ismat ic, pensive and introverted character who may see sign i f icant l i fe chang-es th is year.

Have you heard the rumor Bugs Bunny is on st r ike to ra ise h is celery? The rabbit has brought in a year of negot iat ion, for one to relax and catch h is breath. No need to worry either because he wi l l be f inancia l ly f it and stable.

As we say our last adieus to the Year of the Tiger, fountains, rock-ets, paperless f i recrackers, aer ia ls, and other explosives rest in peace as wel l. Due to complaints about vandal ism, reck less pyrotechnics,

Je t’aime. Ngo oiy ney a. Ego Amo Te. Ich liebe dich. Aloha au ia’ oe. Te amo. Phom rak khun. Aishiteru yo. I love you. No matter what language you say it in, it means the

same thing….Or does it? What do you mean when you say “I love you”?

Love1 (to the first power): SinglesFirst-year WCC student Kelia Kawahara said, “Love

is, in a sense, undefinable. There are so many different aspects and facets to it. You can say ‘I love pizza,’ ‘I love shopping,’ ‘I love my life.’”

“Love is simply adding value to another with no expectation of anything in return,” said WCC theater major Isaac Ligsay.

WCC art major and musician Kasey Shun said, “Love, to me, is a fluctuating, temporal affinity to someone or something. Love is such a powerful thing, yet it can oftentimes be rather debilitating.

“However, it’s whom you love, not who loves you. To love is to lose oneself. I like to imagine what “love” would mean to us if humans lived for, say, 200 years. I’m sure it would be a very different definition.”

Music professor So Jin Kimura said, “The most popular theme for music is love. It can describe so much more emotion than words alone. It’s the most basic yet also complicated emotion that people feel.”

WCC student Kayla Nowack defined love as “seeing the imperfections in people (or the one person) and accepting them as they are. They don’t disappear when the ugly parts of life come. It’s through the hard times that you see who truly loves you—who wants to see you be the best you can be.”

Love2 (squared): CouplesWCC couple Samantha Bocchieri and Kai Klein gave their thoughts on love

from a dating standpoint. Bocchieri, 18, said, “Love is definitely an action…it is the willingness to do whatever it takes to help out the one you care about, even if it means sacrificing something as little as your time, or as big as your life.”

“The only way for true love to happen is to be yourself because it is better for you to love who you are and be happy than to hate who you are just to have fake ‘love’ from someone else,” advised Bocchieri.

Klein, 19, said, “Love is something that never fails to do what it’s meant to do, which is to take care of the person you love no matter what. It’s choosing to be committed through everything that life brings. I hope that Sam feels my love for her uncondition-ally by how I treat, speak to, and care for her.

“I don’t think love is really real when it’s just mushy-gooshy. The reality is that true love comes with sacrifice and hard work. (However,) the mushy-gooshy love is what makes being in love so fun. That’s when you get to be goofy and ridiculous with the one you love and yet so real at the same time,” he said.

Klein and Bocchieri agreed, “We both have relationships with God and we know that we need to keep Him number one in our lives before each other and be more in love with Him than we are with each other.

“Without Him, we don’t have one another or anything else that we care about.

He’s the one who makes things work for us. Love throws lots of surprises at you and those can throw you off, but that breaking-of-your-expectations of what love is is usually always for the better.”

Newlywed couple Rob and WCC student Ally Irving said, “Love is a choice. Always keep in mind that nobody is perfect and so, naturally, that ‘perfect match’ isn’t going to just pop into your life. What makes some-one perfect for you is that you are willing to accept that person for who they are and that you choose to love that person uncondition-ally, despite their imperfections. In the end, love is your choice and it will only last so long as you are committed.”

According to Rob, “You can chase perfec-tion and never be satisfied, or you can ac-cept someone special, commit to loving her forever, and choose to be happy with the life you have been blessed with.

“Love and marriage have changed con-siderably since our grandparents’ generation. Sixty years ago, marriage was a real contract

of love: two people agreeing to spend their lives together no matter what happens—good or bad. That moral commitment to the principle of marriage meant that no matter what happened, the two people stayed together forever because that’s what good people do; they love and support each other above all else.”

“Our generation doesn’t see things the same way. We want what makes us happy now—If you’re not making me happy, then I’ll just go find someone who will. Why would I settle for you anyway; there are millions of ‘perfect’ matches for me that are just a few clicks away.

“Past generations didn’t have the distractions of the Internet or the false hope instilled by mil-lions of potential mates at their fingertips. They lived in a small world where you chose to love someone with whom you shared common values, and you made that love last through your com-mitment to each other,” said Ally.

WCC English professor Robert Barclay and his wife Stacy gave their insight towards love after seven years of marriage and two children.

“Love means a willingness to be aware of each other’s needs, moods, and growth, acting on opportunities to bring happiness to each other’s lives.”

“While it’s important not to try to change each other, it’s also important to understand that people do change and grow throughout their lives. As such, the challenge to keeping love alive and thriving is a process of con-stantly falling in love with each other.”

“One of the nice things about love is that it is infinite. You can never run out of it, and there’s always more to give and you can never have too much. And more kids is just more love. ‘The love you take is equal to the love you

T h e G r e e k s h ad f o u r d i f f e r e nt wor d s t o r e p r e s e nt “ love .”

E r o s , t h e i n t i m at e or r o m a nt ic f e e l i n g s t h at we s o c o m mo n ly a s -s o c i a t e w i t h“ love ”; Ph i l e o , a f o n d-n e s s or love i n f r i e n d s h ip; S t or g e , de e p, n at u r a l a f f e c t io n w it h o ut d i s c r i m i n at io n ; a n d Ag ap e , wh ic h i s u n c o n d i t io n a l love r e g a r d l e s s o f c i r c u m s t a n c e a n d i s c o n s ide r e d

t h e g r e at e s t o f t h e “ love s .”D e s p i t e va r y i n g o p i n io n s o f t h e

B i bl e , f e w c a n f i n d go o d r e a s o n t o d i s ag r e e w i t h i t s de f i n i t io n o f love i n

I C or i n t h i a n s 13 :4 - 8 : “ L ove i s p at i e nt , love i s k i n d . I t do e s n o t e nv y, i t do e s n o t

b o a s t , i t i s n o t p r o ud. I t i s n o t r ude , i t i s n o t s e l f - s e e k i n g , i t i s n o t e a s i ly a n g e r e d , i t

k e e p s n o r e c or d o f w r o n g s . L ove do e s n o t de -l ig ht i n e v i l b ut r e j o i c e s w i t h t h e t r ut h . I t a lway s

p r o t e c t s , a lway s t r u s t s , a lway s h o p e s , a lway s p e r -s e ve r e s . L ove n e ve r f a i l s .”

U lt i m at e ly, t h e u n de r ly i n g s t a t e m e nt i s t h at love i s n o t a b o ut yo u . I t ’s a b o ut t h e o t h e r p e r s o n — t h e o b j e c t o f yo u r love .

L ove m ay b e g i n b e i n g f o c u s e d o n yo u r s e l f , b ut u l t i -m at e ly i t e n d s w i t h a n d f o c u s e s o n t h e o b j e c t o f yo u r love : I love YOU.

S o t h i n k a b o ut wh at yo u’r e r e a l ly p r o m i s i n g t h e n e x t t i m e yo u s ay, “ I love yo u”…a n d m e a n i t .

Love is always feeling, sometimes revealing. It ’s simple and kind, also understanding in time. Love is actually being there, not abandoned promises of caring. It ’s giving and receiving a beautiful gift worth sharing. Between friends, family, lovers, and more... Love is the ‘L’ in the life I’m living for.

—Fredrene Balanay

animal abuse, f i res, respiratory problems and temporary insomnia, the Honolulu Cit y Counci l has passed a ban on f i recrackers for the island of O‘ahu.

The rest r ic t ions apply in terms of the t ime, day and t ypes of f i reworks are used. For events such as Chinese New Year, f i re-crackers may be used between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and you must hold a $25 permit for every 5,000 f i recrackers.

Fireworks are a part of Chinese t radi-t ion to ward off evi l spir its.

“Put t ing a l imit on how many f i recrack-ers you can l ight is l ike put t ing a l imit on your luck for the year,” sa id Honolulu resi-dent Wilbur Wong.

“In Chinese culture, the more f i reworks you burn, the more luck you get.” So th is expla ins why Chinatown looks more l ike a war zone than a celebrat ion during the new year.

Fireworks can be enjoyed at a lmost any age and they have provided Honolulu residents with a way to celebrate dur ing

the hol idays. As an unintended corol lary, opponents of the ban say, enter ta inment seek-ers wi l l search for amusement elsewhere, which could lead to DUI’s or more black market sa les.

Unless you do not mind being greeted with f ines f rom anywhere between $200 to $1,000 on violat ing f i reworks laws, or greater f ines by being under the in f luence of a lco-hol, it is suggested you enjoy these celebrat ions by watching other people get t ing arrested on television, st imulat ing your endorphins with food, playing Scrabble or by at tending the Magic Island f i reworks show.

New Year, New Rule —Bianca Pierce,

Courtesy of Allison Irving

Rob and Ally enjoy their ‘perfect’ love simply by being in each other’s company at the beach.

Background Hand-drawn by Shar Tuiasoa

The First Valentine We all love to love and be loved

Akela Newman

Courtesy of Robert Barclay

Bianca Pierce

—Akela Newman, Editor in Chief—TJ Metcalf, Staff Reporter

—Akela Newman, Editor in Chief

‘I Love Chinatown’ Festival found a dancing Lion getting friendly with fireworks in celebration of the Chinese New Year.

Sam and Kai find their love and education thriving at WCC.

WCC Professor Robert Barclay’s daugh-ter, Ava, ‘photographed’ their family through a lens of love.

Staff Reporter

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