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For the love of others

Valentine's Day celebrates romantic love, but there's so much more to love

He makes his metal roses with love, and couldn’t live without love in his life – at least not a life with any quality.

Today is Valentine’s Day, a day dedicated mostly to romantic love. But there are so many more expressions of love than romantic ones, said many in the University Centre on campus.

Kelly McGroty has a small moving and junk removal business, and a metal arts studio where he makes his pretty glazed roses. He was selling them in the UC on Tuesday. A mere $15 would get you a medium, long-stemmed beauty that could last a lifetime.

“I have four daughters, so I better believe in love,” McGroty said, as the morning student crowd buzzed through the building. Some, no doubt, had love on the brain.

“What is love?” McGroty pondered, echoing back a question asked of him. “Love is love. It’s partnership, it’s relationship. It’s something very special and necessary. When you love someone, you always want to see them and be around them.”

Asked if it was possible to live without this strange force called love, he answered “no” so fast it would make your heart skip a beat.

“I’m pretty sure I would just shrivel up and die inside,” he said. “People are socially, emotionally driven creatures. You need love to survive. OK, maybe you could survive, but there would be no quality of life at all.”

Candy is a big part of Valentine’s Day. Apparently, if you have some given to you, or give some to another, it’s a gesture of love.

The student-run club FeelGood Guelph hosted a Valentine’s Day Candy Bar in the UC. There were small, medium and large bags to stuff full of candy, all for a small donation to the club.

FeelGood supports a number of international projects, like Choice Humanitarian, the Hunger Project, and Water for People, all dedicated to promoting sustainability and ending poverty. All candy proceeds go to support these causes, and towards the push to end extreme poverty by 2030.

“I guess this is kind of an expression of love, because it involves working with other people and having a love for people,” said club member Kevin Santiago, a University of Guelph student. “Yes, it is an act of love – a very fulfilling act of love.”

Carolyn Gray, a material resources coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee, was setting up a display in the UC on Valentine’s Day. The organization is active in humanitarian work in 60 countries, where it is engaged in over 675 projects that support relief, development and peace.  

“I think of it is an act of love, and an act of responsibility that is also rooted in love,” Gray said, speaking of the work she does to improve the lives of others. “It was important for me to be on a career path that involved love.”

Gray believes that everyone has the capacity for love, and that love is as prevalent and active in the world as it ever was.

“One thing that has changed, I think, is that everyone has become too busy,” she said. “I think we need to become less distracted, and to pay more attention to those in our immediate spheres.”


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Rob O'Flanagan

About the Author: Rob O'Flanagan

Rob O’Flanagan has been a newspaper reporter, photojournalist and columnist for over twenty years. He has won numerous Ontario Newspaper Awards and a National Newspaper Award.
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