ABSTRACT
Love Connects. Love Heals. Let Love Rule. Give Love: Great phrases for Valentine's Day cards. I like to imagine them carved on the candied hearts of my childhood we passed around so earnestly as children. The message I remember most from back then, in red lettering on a pink heart, stated “be mine.” The words of love listed above are all phrases I write on the title page of the three books that make up my love trilogy: All About Love: New Visions; Salvation: Black People and Love; and Communion: The Female Search For Love. And even though they make great presents for Valentine's Day, they all challenge our culture's obsession with romantic love and partnership. Most people confess that friendships, and not romantic bonds, are the place where they first begin to learn the art and practice of loving. Yet the moment I tell anyone I am writing about love, they assume the topic is romantic relationships. And that is even more so if I mention males and females. Again and again, I have to state 166that love is as important in relationships between fathers and daughters, sisters and brothers, and so on.
