True Love Ways - Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is about loneliness - both the song I wrote in 1995 but also, when you think about it, the made-up "holiday" itself.

"I wish that I could be free
from this string of one night affairs
I long for someone to look at me
but all they do is stare,
and no one ever stays here
long enough to say,
I love you, my dear,
to me on Valentines Day.

I wish someone would rescue me
from the prison that holds my heart
I long for someone to promise me
that we'll never be apart,
and no one ever stays here
long enough to say,
I love you, my dear,
to me on Valentines Day.

I dream of someone to help me escape
from this common cage,
he'll set me free, and we'll run away
to be together
on Valentines Day,
but no one ever stays here
long enough to say,
I love you, my dear,
to me on Valentines Day."

I think Thomas Wolfe had it right when he wrote that "loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence."

Joseph Conrad called loneliness a "naked terror", and Albert Schweitzer observed that "we are all dying of loneliness."

For my part, I think that the only way we can truly ameliorate the condition of loneliness is by embracing solitude on a regular basis. The cure for loneliness doesn't lie in the company of others, and it's futile to look for it there - it lies in a better understanding and acceptance of ourselves. In other words, to the protagonist of the song, I would say this: the only one who can release you from your "common cage" is you.

Paul Kimball