Love & Sex 2011

Many Splendored, Indeed

February 1, 2011

9:19 PM

Jennifer Esperanza

Google “love” for a quick glimpse at the overwhelming response human culture has to a seemingly unknowable condition. Whether it’s the ancient Greeks, contemporary psychologists or rock ’n’ roll lyricists, everyone (or, at least, 1.8 billion web pages) has an opinion, a story and a classification system for this defining emotion.

Even the most complex theories, though, are little more than guesswork. So let’s break love down into two broad categories: passionate love and the other kind. It’s quickly evident that passionate love is where all the mystery lies. As Pascal said back in the 1600s (and this is a paraphrase): The heart has its reasons, which reason knows not. Or, for a more contemporary view, as Florence Welch sings in her cover of Robert Palmer: Might as well face it, you’re addicted to love…

As for Valentine’s Day, it also remains a bit of a mystery. Historians identify its progenitor—St. Valentine—as three different martyred priests, and some believe the holiday itself began as an attempt to Christianize a pagan holiday.

That’s why SFR’s annual Love & Sex issue is devoted not just to Feb. 14, but also to the spirit of the holiday, which can and should be celebrated

all the time

We’ve also assembled a wide variety of romance-related suggestions for everything from

, gifts and

and lots of dance ideas:

couples

burlesque

and