VDay Series: Love in the Time of COVID

The WMI’s VDay series features anonymous submissions from writers sharing their perspectives on love, halal dating, and challenges for Muslims living in the West. Views expressed are not necessarily representative of the WMI. Photos provided.

—

It’s incredible that we’re still celebrating Valentine’s Day this year, perhaps even more so than usual. Every where you look you can see people are yearning for some sort of social interaction; the comments, DM’s and phone calls have increased, the Clubhouse invites are being passed around like sweetheart candy. After a year of social isolation, it’s not just COVID in the air but love too. So many match-making services have picked up, people have started to launch online events to get some type of interaction going, it seems like everyone is thinking the same thing. At times it feels like, because of the lack of physical interaction, we are trying to compensate it really hard online. It’s only natural–and probably necessary.

Love is tricky, because it can make suffering worse as it makes a person suffer for themselves and their loved ones, or suffer from the lack of love. But at the same time, love can be a reason to endure. That hopeful–perhaps naive–wish we all have of finding our true love keeps us going, it allows us to dream and wonder.

I recently read The Plague, for which I wrote a review here. In it the author of the book, Albert Camus, explores whether or not the citizens of the fictional town, Oran, were even alive before the plague put them under total-lockdown. It was only when they were separated by quarantine did they realize their love for their friends, lovers, and families. Before this moment they took them for granted and were lost in their busy lives. Reading The Plague made me thankful we’re living in a digital age, where I can swipe left or right on potential matches, while the people of Oran had no letters, no telephone calls, no word of loved ones that were outside of the city.

His central character, Dr. Rieux, has to endure his wife dying outside of the city. He goes on to watch families and lovers reunite when the city of Oran is finally cured of the plague. He wonders whether or not there can be any peace of mind or any meaning to life with so much suffering and struggle going around. He concludes that there can, for those “who knew now that if there is one thing one can always yearn for, and sometimes attain, it is human love.”

Finally, Camus writes: “a loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of prisons, of one’s work, and of devotion to duty, and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth and wonder of a loving heart.”

I hope you find your love this Valentine’s Day, and hold all your loved ones a little closer–for in a world of tragedy and absurdity, we have a reason to endure.

Consider sending a Valentine’s e-card with these cheesy messages, guaranteed to a put a smile on their face:

“There’s no one else I’d rather be stuck at home with”

“To me, you’re essential.”

‘You may not be in my bubble, but you’re in my heart.’