LUV U 4EVER

Valentine's Day is that one day of the year in the dead of winter that turns something as powerful as love into a cheap cliché. With the hopes of fulfilling a commercialized, generic standard of what it means to show you care about someone, heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, red roses and pre-written cards from the Hallmark aisle of a convenience store are offered up to lovers like blood sacrifices to a deity. 

I always feel hollowed out by these empty February 14th displays of affection. It's not that I'm some crazy, bitter Valentine-hater, I just don't think that love can be put in a box... let alone a Russell Stover sampler. Love's different for everyone because everyone's different; you can't label it, you can't always define it, and it shouldn't be standardized or measured by the number of chocolate-covered strawberries you give or receive. 

Though I might not be the biggest fan of Valentine's Day, I am a big fan of Cupid's work. Wouldn't it be great if a chubby, cherubic baby could shoot an arrow and point people in the direction of someone they're meant to be with? Think about how rare it is to be in the right place at the right time and make a lasting connection with someone... for 2 personalities out of the 7 billion personalities on this planet to be drawn together and click. Humphrey Bogart said it best in Casablanca; "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." 

It's just really hard to know which gin joint to walk into, Humphrey!

The sad truth is that we don't always have serendipity on our side when it comes to meeting Mr. or Mrs. Right, and that's where the matchmakers, astrologists and love coaches of the world come in. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I can think of dozens of worse ways to make a living than being paid to bring couples together. The online dating industry alone generates nearly $4 billion a year in revenues and continues to grow with each passing day. Though algorithms and social networks may not be the most quixotic way to find love, at least all the singles out there this Valentines Day can rest easy knowing that in a world without Cupid at least there's OkCupid.com.