Happy Valentine's Day!

The problem with a huge paper being due February 16th is that we all wait until the weekend before to do it, and February 14th is a day that the tv is swarmed with everyone's favorite romantic movies. Right now I'm watching Love Actually, one of my favorites. 

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around. 

The funny thing is, when our plane landed in Frankfurt, and Luna and I took off to get our bags, there was a little old man waiting right there next to the baggage claim. He was obviously looking for someone, and that someone was obviously not involved in our huge group of people. A young girl in her 20s with red hair and hippie clothes jumped out from behind our group and gave the older gentleman a big hug. He told his daughter, perhaps granddaughter, how much he had missed her and how happy he was to see her at last, it had just been too long. My first thought was Love Actually's opening lines. There is so much love in the world and we just don't see it, sometimes we just don't open our eyes and notice it, but it is all around. 

Whether it's family reuniting at an airport 

or if it's 16 year olds holding hands at the mall, 

20 somethings celebrating the birth of their first child, 

or ancient wrinkled love birds sitting in a park together it is certainly and blatantly everywhere, sometimes we are just too stubborn to see it, it's a choice we have to make, and I think it's the choice between optimism and pessimism. 

Happy Valentine's Day!