To be honest, I always get annoyed at the commercialization of holidays and certain dates in the calendar and Valentine’s Day is no exception to that. All the flowers (predominantly roses of course), chocolate and other typical Valentine’s gifts that, to be honest, are modern forms of capital destruction really don’t do anything for me. At the same time, I believe that caring for the people around us and (scary word) the act of love to those in our circle as well as the world at large is important. Our communities and society are held together by people that do not act out of self interest, but rather decide to invest in making the world a little bit of a better place by sacrificing time and resources and investing these in altruistic ways. Not out of romantic love, but rather through the loving kindness that the Buddhists preach. So, my request to myself and to you today is to be a little bit kinder to the people you meet today than what you would otherwise be!