in the name of love

It’s that time of year again…when most of us guys are just recovering financially from lavishing gifts on our loved ones for Christmas and before you know it, here comes Valentines Day in its pink and red splendor begging you to plunk down that credit card just a few more times.  Whoever thought up these holidays MUST be rich by now!

Some of my oldest personal memories of Valentines Day come from being in elementary school where our teacher would drum up excitement about the opportunity to do more crafts.  We would make little “mailboxes” to receive our valentines from other class members by cutting out two large hearts in red or pink construction paper (both colors if you were creative), glue around the lower edges of the heart and stick the two pieces together to create an envelope-type-deal.  Then with all the creativity you could muster you would decorate your mailbox with markers, glitter and pipe-cleaner in order to “lure” your classmates to your desk so that you could score the most valentines.  Eventually, everyone would tape their mailboxes to their desks and the popularity game was set to begin.  Some of us boys knew that this was our moment to find true love…an opportunity to tell the pretty redhead who sits at the front of the class how you really feel without having to pull her hair or fire spitballs at her…you know, the way young boys would.  For others, this whole thing was a living nightmare because this one exercise would underscore how unpopular you were and would seal your fate as a “loser”.  How did it fare for me?  Well, lets just say I didn’t find true love…lol.

Flash forward twenty years and I look back on some of those childhood memories and realize that love IS special and love IS hard work.  This year, my wife and I started doing the “Love Dare”.  For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s a devotional for couples derived from the movie Fireproof.  It’s a series of “dares” or actions that you follow through on with your partner in order to get you to actively think about and demonstrate your love for each other.  As a young teen or even young adult the misconception is that once you get married, love is automatic and just works for you without much thought.  Obviously, judging by the divorce rate, that is not the case.  The longer you are in a relationship with someone the more you realize that true love is more than being swept off your feet with swirly, whirly, fuzzy emotions where people write books and movies about you like the Notebook.  In fact, you begin to understand that true love is not something you feel but rather something you are compelled to give away, even without the expectation of getting something in return.  What I thought to be love in the 3rd grade is nowhere near what I know love to be today, now that I have a wife and a daughter.  For instance, in the 3rd grade I wanted to feel good, appreciated and popular but now I would throw myself in front of a speeding bus or a stray bullet without thinking, in order to save and protect my wife and my daughter, Emma.  Putting my life on the line is an after-thought…my life, my needs, my wants, my security are now secondary to what is important to me.  In other words, I’m only just beginning to understand what true love is because I am no longer the object of my own affection.

So, in the name of love (one of my favorite U2 songs!), I would like to take this opportunity to announce a new project of ours called, “In The Name of Love”.  Basically, our goal is to find one well-deserving couple who may have fallen on hard times and provide them with top notch wedding photography, complete with an album, DVD of images, etc., a la Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  Now, here’s were you come in…if you know of a couple (anywhere in the country) who you believe deserve an opportunity like this, please let us know.  We will announce the winning couple on Valentines day 2011 and if it goes over well, we will make this an annual event.  People can email studio@michaelmoss.com with the subject line, “In The Name of Love: Couple’s Name” to provide us with nominations.

Happy Loving!