Ode to the Day of Valentine

Dear Valentines,

Happy is the day today.

"It's just an over-commercialized stupid day for people who have a lover" you say? Well to that I say, today, from the bay..... embrace the day. Set aside to force one to buy pink teddy bears and heart shaped celophane balloons and make every guy feel guilty if he doesn't get the bear and celophane? To that I say, heed not the capitalist society from whence we spring! Valentines is the celebration of love, like a birthday to celebrate births, St. Patricks to celebrate the Irish and their 4 leaved weeds, Oktoberfest to celebrate the drunken Germans and lastly Groundhog Day to celebrate that effervescent weather forecasting rodent. Who do you love? Who don't you love is not the question of the hour though answers respectfully assumed. Mother, grandmother, sister, brother, hobo, teacher, courteous driver, child at the grocery store saying hello. The ones you've forgiven, the ones who've forgiven you, the ones who need you, the ones who have yet to meet you. Romance, familial, platonic or unrequited... I say let it pour. Yes, let's use this day, set aside, mandated, dicatated, heaved onto us belittled and embittering by us all, beleveled or in fuller bloom, whatever it's face for whoever it faces, consider that miracle of miracles, immortal and underexposed, kitsched and coddled... love. Love is the day.
Happy Valentine's Day. And may love conquer all things designed to dull yet never destroy it. The soul's excavator, the only softener to the heart, the shatterer of all fears.