While scrolling through Facebook in my 8am Philosophy class (too early for Socrates), I saw the Pentatonix cover of Hallelujah from their new Christmas album. Lets face it, it’s never too early to belt out Christmas music. You can listen to the song here.
The line that really stuck out to me was, “Love is not a victory march, it’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah.” Take a second to read (or sing) it over and really take it in.
“Love is not a victory march, it’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah.”
It’s so counter cultural to what college tells you, but it’s so true. And I’m not talking about “love” in the confines of romantic love. Love means so many things—love for friends, family, a sport, yourself, nature; the list goes on forever. The truth is love is not always #RelationshipGoals where everything seems perfect. And life is often #Expectations versus reality. It’s not always smooth sailing and it shouldn’t be. Life and love are overly idealized in our society. We expect to have everything together all the time—the perfect family, boyfriend, clothes, body, job and all while keeping good grades and progressing toward a respectable career, all without breaking a sweat. Often we do try to present our life as a “victory march”—just look at Instagram where people, including me, publicize their-happy-go-lucky life. We want to look like we have it all together.
But it’s essential to step back and recognize that life’s not supposed to be easy or perfect. It’s often the struggle, yet perseverance of relationships, dreams and beauty that makes everything worthwhile, deep and strong. Otherwise, everything would be surface level and boring. So just remember, love and also life, should not be a “victory march” on a paved path of doing it all and having it all. Yet, it is about the “coldness” and “brokenness” of life that causes us to put on the warm jacket of love and imperfectly mend our broken path. And no matter if we march, walk, crawl, drive, or limp through this path of life, it is only important that we embrace the beauty of the struggle and keep moving.
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