2/14/03 12:30 PM PST: "Love ... so many things I got to tell you ..."

It's Valentine's Day, and I'm in a foul mood. It could be the sudden and unexpected rash of sunshine on a day that promised rain. It could be the choked and ignorant mewlings of neighbors outside my window. It coulld be that, if I may quote a Valentine's card I got, "faith has taken a sabbatical with an open ended ticket ... disappointment and compromise seem the bastard twins orphaned on [the] doorstep."

Who's to say? I mean, we each believe, for the most part, that what we're doing is the right thing, regardless of the effects it has on other people. Very few people wake up and set themselves on a course to do wrong, and those who do (I've learned) have some trauma, some horror in their lives that shook them from what seems like a built-in desire of humanity to try and not act like a complete jackass. Even Hitler believed that what he was doing was right, based on his system of values (not that I'm apologizing for Hitler, or the swastika-ed hordes of adherents he spawned).

It would be hard for me to say that my message today is "love" as I type to you from across a great divide. I do remember reading a list of quotes that said, "everyone you meet is fighting a tough battle." I may just be mellowing in my old age, but I'm inclined to cut everybody -- from the cell phone wielding cretin who cuts me off in traffic to the rambunctious neighbor kid with no volume control -- a littlle more slack.

Today, anyway.

Here's hoping you find some adoration this Valentine's. Auf wiedersen.