Pepsi Max on Love

Last Friday morning, due to heavy rain and heavy traffic, I was stuck along EDSA for more or less an hour and a half.  As a consequence, I had all the chance to look around, read advertisements, stare at billboards, and come up with conclusions whether I like what I see or the ad makes sense or the grammar is right or the tags are nice or the slogans hit a mark and things like that.  In all those wonderings, one slogan truly hit a mark on me.  Pepsi Max’s “Love is a battlefield, Get some scars” sure is something.  Though I cannot find the connection between Pepsi Max and love being a battlefield, this slogan made my day.  I was smiling to myself the rest of the ride to work after reading it.  I keep saying that, how true:  Love is a battlefield.

Can you name someone alive who doesn’t have scars after returning from the wars?  Probably it’s someone who cowered and made a run for it.  But usually in war movies, soldiers like that, if we can call them soldiers, are shot to death for cowardice.  If not, they commit suicide because of shame.  Or worse, they go mad.  Applying these principles on love, I realized, or more accurately I affirmed, that in loving, we must have the guts of a real, genuine soldier.  We cannot just be brave, we have to be principled and decided and willing to get some scars, even a few DEEP ones.  Because only when we’re truly convinced that we understand and want what we’re doing can we accept all the pain that comes with loving and not be bitter about it but instead, mature and grow through it.  It’s the only way we’ll not go crazy because trust me, THERE IS and THERE WILL ALWAYS be pain in love.  No matter how much we force ourselves to believe that love is that world of butterflies where everything is beautiful and nice and good, it’s never the case.  On the other hand, will we let these “scars” or threat of “having scars” stop us from marveling in that wonderful universe of love where everything has freedom, beyond our control and unpredictable?  We’ll miss life and living if we do because what’s there in life without love?  So be scared no more.  I’d rather be wounded than blind:  blind and ignorant of what I am missing without love, like a coward soldier who retreated and missed out on all the great adventures that come with fighting a battle and conquering the enemy.  I’d rather fall head over heels in love with someone than be afraid and hesitant to tell somebody how much he means to me.

Get some scars.  Love is worth it because it is a battlefield:  a fight where only the bravest at heart come out victorious.

On a side note, I suddenly made a connection between Pepsi Max and the slogan.

Max is the shortened term for MAXIMUM, which implies, I believe, a peak state, the furthest degree:  a state wherein no improvements can be made.  It is the utmost.  It is reaching the highest degree of capacity or endurance that, when applied to love, means giving it your all, your everything, leaving yourself with completely nothing and enduring it all, taking it all in.  As soldiers, entering the battlefield is like surrendering yourself to fate and trusting in your weapon.  The same is very true with love.  You surrender yourself to it and trust in your only weapon:  YOUR HEART.  You trust in its strength and have faith that it makes the wise choice.  You give it control and let it take over, trusting that it will get you through.  You are willing to endure it all.  It’s a complete surrender which, like what I’ve mentioned earlier, only those who have a brave heart can manage to do.