Kindness and Valentine's Day

I always say that I don't consider something a real holiday unless I get off work for it.  That pretty much sums up my stance on Valentine's Day.  I'd love to pretend that if I weren't single I would still feel that way, but that's probably not the case.  If I had a boyfriend or a husband (but not both, because that's bad manners), I would probably be one of those obnoxious but well-intentioned people posting 14 days of Valentines and filling everyone in on our plans for the big day and making proclamations about how sweet my sweetie is.  My life would be the most saccharine romantic comedy of all time, because that's just the kind of girl I am deep inside.  But, since it's not, I'm a little bit bitter about those people who are happy.  (I know, I know.  That's wrong.  I'm trying to trample it down, trust me.)

It don't think it would really bother me if I didn't want so badly to be one of the girls getting bouquets at work.  I couldn't help but smile at all the husbands/boyfriends wandering around the local WalMart purchasing candy and flowers last night.  I was getting a pint of Ben and Jerry's Red Velvet Cake, in an effort to secure my spot as stereotypical singleton school marm.  The good news, if there really is any on a day like today, is that I have work followed by more work, so I don't really have a lot of time to be alone with my thoughts.  (Or alone with that pint of ice cream.)  It's just really difficult to get geared up about a day that is basically engineered to remind single people that they are.  We don't really need the help.

Instead, I am challenging my students to portray a different kind of love--love for humanity.  Following movements like #26Acts or #BeKind (started by Ellen Degeneres), over the next month (or hopefully longer), I am encouraging students to do a not-so-random act of kindness and then to post it on our message board outside my classroom, not to be applauded but to serve as a reminder that there is more good than evil in the world.  

Heroes may fail us, relationships may fall apart, but we must remember how the story ends.  Christ died and will come again because He loves us.  Love overcomes.  And we don't need a schlocky Valentine's card or a bunch of flowers to remember that.