Nothing says “LOVE” like money. So on this Valentines Day 2008 I gave her cold hard cash. A pile of 50s. That’s better than flowers, or chocolate, or clothing, or even a gift certificate. Money. You can get anything in this world with money. Enough of it, that is. But if you have money and don’t give it to people who need it, does that say ‘I don’t love you all that much’? So if you have money, give it to people. It makes them happy. What woe isn’t just a little better if you have plenty of money? Money doesn’t cure everything, but I think it really makes most everything a little better.

Love is really not so easy. Love is never having to say… oh forget it. That was so stupid, so 70s stupid. I hated that movie. Never read the book, thankfully. Love is when you give your life for somebody else over a period of 50 years. Or in an instant. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Not give it up, but lay it down.

Love is impossible in this life unless we first love God. If we love Him we can love somebody else. If we love somebody else, we can come to love ourselves. That’s not the same as self-love, narcissism, egoism. That’s not real love. It’s very much akin to lust. And Cathy and Heathcliff? Paolo and Francesca? You call that love? That’s a sick perversion of true love. True love is giving of self to other, because first you have felt God’s love, and understand love, and can give love to someone else—at your expense. Love is painful, because it is always at your expense. You love when you sacrifice self. God knows that. Et prior dilexit nos.