The Day After Valentine's Day

I heard a show on Sirius Radio that was dedicated to the superficiality of Valentine's Day. During this program a person who worked at a florist called in and commented that she was appalled by the number of people coming in to buy flowers. (I think we calls these customers...) The sentiment being that you should Love someone every day and that February 14 was an arbitrary date upon which those who have an inability to express their Love have a default of flowers and chocolates.

On the pages of Twitter, I saw countless posts by people condemning the 'holiday' or apologizing for celebrating it.

My dance card has been filled for a while but even before my ship found it's port I remember enjoying Valentines Day. It was indeed a superficial excuse to invite someone you admired on a date....what's wrong with that?

When did we get so angry? When did seeing Love in others make us mad? Are those who post anti-Valentines wishes suffering broken hearts or do they not feel like putting the effort into Love?

I would propose 3 distinct realities on Valentines Day:
* LOVE is Awesome
* Pessimism of any sort Sucks!
* Ones influence should be used only for Good!

I have heard it said that Love was admitting you cared about someone else more than yourself. I Love that idea!

For many years, I lived with a negativity fueled determination. Eye on the prize with no one to distract me from my goals. Every time I crossed the finish line I was alone. My life was easy at that point. It was not until I decided to give of myself that life got significantly more challenging and much, much more rewarding. The simple (if unfair) fact of life is that all rewards come at the cost of dedicating yourself to others. Put your determination aside, let someone in and achieve together for the mutual benefit of something good. Taking this into account it stands to reason that the primary element of PROGRESS is LOVE!

Next Valentine's Day when you go to air your hate mail for the world to see consider this:
Until we realize that the acts that propel us forward are driven by Love and continue to ignore Love we will only halt progress. Let not the acts of the self-centered bring us to similar actions.

ALLOW YOURSELF TO LOVE AND BE LOVED!

* To give of yourself is not easy but nothing worth achieving comes without sacrifice.

"Without Love in a Dream it will never come true"
- Jerry Garcia

"One man is no man"
- Robert Morrison

Don't Forget to Remember,

Dave