Not Your Everyday Valentine... Here's My Sweaty Shirt, Baby!

So I read this article that says we are programmed to seek out partners who are different from us by means of their immune systems... Something about how their chemical makeup interacts as some kind of slyly beckoning pheromone that appeals to the opposite sex (or same sex, I reckon.) We supposedly react to our genetically dissimilar opposites in order to multiply and enhance our species as their differences bolster our offspring's immune resistance... my husband is literally good for me!  Plus the benefits of regular immune support from stress-relief in part from higher dopamine & serotonin levels and, of course, physical & emotional connection. I don't know about chemical shifts and pheromone triggers, but I do know that except for my husband's Vibram 5-Finger running shoes after his long shifts, I love the way he smells to me. He's apparently got the chemical cocktail that does it for this gal!!!

So he's good for me. (Or at the very least, good for my potential future children.) So that got me thinking about a whole bunch of things. Love, happiness, relationships. I think people think I put too much stock in their partner "making" them happy... but the point is you need to find someone who doesn't even have to do ANYTHING and it makes you happy! I read this part in a book last night (trying to carve out just a little "me time" in each day...) and it was talking about how he knew he loved her (in a spy novel... Don't worry, I'm not taking up reading romance novels or any of that business...) Anyways, he said because he enjoyed their silence just as much as when they were talking and laughing that he was content to just be near to her. I feel like that. I like being close to him, even if we don't have any words left to say, whether we are out running errands or cleaning the house, when I know he is there next to me in the dark, when I can hear him breathing (no snoring!) and I know he is simply there. Without him doing a thing, it makes me feel better. To me, THAT is love.

I think the phenomenon of love is an amazing thing. People search for it, try to force it, fall into it, and sometimes back out again. It can burn hot and singe you if you aren't careful. It overrides our primitive brain's mandate for self-preservation and protection. It makes us vulnerable, and yet it strengthens us simultaneously. It is the most mysteriously powerful force in the universe. It makes people do things never imaginable otherwise. It gives its life for a loved one. It binds people together with an invisible connection that changes them on an entire level, brain waves, chemical receptors and all. It raises to great heights and drops you off deep cliffs. It somehow endures despite distance, separation and hardship. It fights in its own defense. It struggles through the darkest times, and lights my way when I feel as though the world is so much bigger than I am.

The idea that an intermixing of chemicals and genetics can modify a species and their evolutionary track is amazing. The process and very existence of these hidden agendas for attraction, love and encoding of immune preference written within us to enhance our biological dominion over our environment is astounding. Do I love my husband more because he makes me coffee without asking, or is it really just the smell of his sweat that binds me to him for the sake of potential mini-me's? Perhaps BOTH factors play a large part in this complicated circumstance we call "being in love." I don't mind!

It is a week before Valentine's Day and this obviously has me thinking a lot about what love means to me and how very incredible it truly is in this crazy world. Immune support building, species-promoting and all.
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For further reading up on immune system-related attraction, smelling good to potential mates - (licorice and cucumber, guys?) and how birth control pills may be changing human evolution at:
http://digitaljournal.com/article/273380
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/05/06/dating-smell-match.html
http://health.ninemsn.com/whatsgoodforyou/theshow/694410/can-our-pheromones-attract-a-partner
http://www.viewzone.com/estrogen.html

Wondering just WHAT I'm talking about and don't know about the barefoot-running craze? Here's Vibram's website: http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/index.htm