Valentines day is next Monday. Personally I’ve never really cared much about Valentines Day. It’s one of those days that never seem to meet up to your expectations. I am starting to get a little annoyed lately though, I keep hearing this ad on the radio for something called “The Bitter Ball.” It’s for folks without Valentines.  While the name is funny I really hate thinking about spending a perfectly good day being bitter. Bitterness gets you no place you want to be. I also heard someone on the same station ask, “who came up with Valentines Day anyway?” With that I decided to do some looking into the history of Valentines Day.

As usual, there are a bunch of legends and stories so who really knows the truth. The bottom line is, Valentine was a priest who became a saint because he helped people, not because he was some over the top romantic or sex god. Most notably, Valentine married soldiers who where banned from marring because Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers so he outlawed marriage. Saint Valentine is also said to have healed a blind girl while he was in prison waiting to be executed. Just before his death he wrote a note to the former blind girl that said, “From your Valentine.” And, there you have it!

Rather than stewing up a big ol’ batch of bitterness this Valentines Day, I suggest that we do something nice for someone we don’t know.  Like Saint Valentine. You can be anonymous if you like. Think of it as a social experiment. (You can still do this even if you have a “real” Valentine). It doesn’t have to be big, all you have to do is take the guys in the mailroom at work something nice, or pay the bridge toll for the car behind you (I love it when people do that for me!). Buy the person in line behind you at the Starbucks their coffee. They don’t have to know you did it. Just give the cashier an extra few bucks and tell ‘em what to do. Take the dogs at the animal shelter some biscuits! How easy is that!

If you make someone feel good it will make you feel good. Just try.

Start thinking about your plan…I’ll check in on you later.