YES Pay attention, all you romantic Valentine-y types, because here come a few facts of life: you are all sad victims of the biggest confidence trick ever played on the human race - love. Never have humans been so effectively blindfolded as when it comes to love. I am here to tell you that love is dead.
Think about it. What else promises so much, delivers so little and lasts so short a time? The normal course of a so-called loving relationship is simply a process of moving from total absorption to total indifference.
To me, this indicates one thing and one thing only - the fallacy of the original concept.
There will be no all-consuming passion in your life. There will be no everlasting togetherness. There will be no life-long pleasure. But there will be disappointment, anxiety, pain, horror and numbness.
Why? Because expecting to fall in love as we have been told it should be sets standards that cannot possibly be lived up to. We have been told it will last forever, told it is the ultimate feeling, told it never dies. It doesn't, it isn't, it does.
We must redefine love to make its aims reasonable and its concepts achievable if we are ever to escape its grasp. So here - in time for Valentine's Day - is a new and realistic definition of love.