Clearly this would not do anymore than my standard second lead-in, which is to relate the article to a personal experience of my own. 

    My first wife asked me for a divorce in a valentine on Valentine’s Day. Don’t misunderstand, its not that ‘J’ is unkind, its just that she is frugal and could save herself the stamp of a separate mailing; at the time 17 cents if I recall. 

    My second wife, married for less than three months, cheated on me on Valentine’s Day with a traveling Mead paper supply salesman. I am sure that ‘L’ didn’t mean to be unkind either. She is industrious and we were after all poor newly-weds’ and critically low on office supplies. 

    This then left me with my third choice for a lead-in, the root of the word itself. The name Valentine comes from the Latin word ‘valor’, meaning ‘worthy’. 

    At first glance I struggled with the idea of ‘worthy’ as much as I did my first two choices. Arguably everyone is worthy of love, certainly those in our closest circle including our parents, spouse, children, friends, cousins, aunts and uncles and so on, and literally every religion or belief system in the world speaks of love toward your creator, neighbor, and self, not to mention the blade of grass I stepped on while walking my dog, whom I do love dearly and who will get a valentine shaped steak from me on February 14^th; but I can hardly cram all of this love fest into one designated day. Surely there is another meaning or purpose to this day of commemoration. 

    Traditionally we celebrate Valentine’s Day with the obligatory card, a box of mediocre chocolates, and the ‘I could kill myself boring’ red roses, all culminating in dinner with our significant other at a restaurant just a smidge above a Denny’s to mark the importance of the occasion, and to demonstrate to the person sitting across from us that they have been deemed worthy of our affection. 

    It’s all so clinical, predictable, and insincere, and the price for this disingenuous carnival of love will come in at about $80.00; or in my case worthiness measured up to a first class stamp, and a jumbo box of number 2 pencils. 

    In truth, at the time that is probably all my love was worth, and that is when I remembered something someone once said to me;  “In the end we won’t be measured by how much we loved others, but by how much others loved us.” 

     I think there is some truth in this premise. Every day we have opportunities to demonstrate our love to those whose lives we touch, even if only in passing with a warm smile or kind gesture toward a stranger. It does not much matter so long as the sentiment is honest and sincere. 

    Valentine’s Day is not a celebration of our love for others, it is a celebration to recognize and honor those who gave of themselves against their own best interest, a celebration of their love for us. 

    This Valentine’s Day when I am sitting across from my significant other I will no doubt tell her how much I love her too, but more importantly, I will confess that I am aware of how difficult I am, and of my faults too many to count, and that in spite of my shortcomings I am grateful and mystified that she somehow finds me worthy of her love. Then I will take her hand into mine, look into her eyes, drop to my knees, and thank her. 

    Well actually, this Valentine’s Day I will be practicing on my dog while serving him that steak and wiping drool from his little Pug face, but I am confident my day will come. I know it in my heart. 

    Until then, from my desktop to yours, Happy Valentine’s Day, and God bless those who love us.