By now you have finished your Valentine’s Day candy–except for the two or three chocolates you squished to see what’s inside, but left in the box.  February is a good month to sample squishy thoughts like beauty, love, and happiness.

I enjoy going to the movies, but Hollywood often portrays a false reality.  Let’s consider the following:

1. Beauty

Nobody looks that great after a high-speed car chase, a shoot-out, or barely escaped explosion.  Only movie stars and royalty are perpetually primped by professional make-up artists and hair stylists.  The rest of us wake up in the morning with bed head, bad breath, and dark circles.  And that’s okay.

I fear that Hollywood holds up a mirror that mere mortals cannot appropriate.  I once watched a TV show about a swimsuit model who had committed suicide because she suffered from a poor body image.  A swimsuit model?  Are you kidding me?  I realized then that you can’t measure people’s insides by their outsides.  Sadly, we tend to pay far more attention to a book’s cover than to its content.

2. Love

A psychologist friend who counsels couples once gave me an interesting perspective on love.  He said that the fevered flames of first attraction naturally mellow with time.  He asks his clients, “Do you think your grandfather’s heart skips a beat every time your grandmother walks across the room.?”  Probably not (unless he has cardiac arrhythmia).  But that’s okay.  Infatuation is a sprint; marriage is a marathon.  Love is more than an emotion.  It is a choice, a decision of the will.

3. Happiness

Let’s face it.  We don’t live on the silver screen.  Much of life is messy and hard.  That’s because we’ve inherited a fallen world.  We will never attain a perfectly carefree existence on this earth.  And that’s okay.  Our assignment here is to struggle.  Man must earn a living by the sweat of his brow.  Woman must suffer in childbirth.  Snakes must slither on the ground–at least until the woman finds a hoe.

But life is still good—despite the wrinkles, zits, and cellulite. Life is still good—despite the laundry, dirty dishes, and grocery bill. Life is still good—despite the two or three squished chocolates you left in the box.