Valentine's Day and the Misery Bear

I usually hesitate to write about Valentine's Day because I don't want my single friends to feel left out.

Oh sure ....they're always giving me a hard time about being hitched, but I feel that on this day their empty lives are punishment enough.

And I sure don't want all the other bitter people out there to accuse me of being part of the corporate plot to sell chocolates and flowers and cards.

But this year I feel I can safely write about it. Because this year I am all alone. Sébastien is working in a clinic in this tormented place.

“A baby was born last night and then died,” he said, “the mother with no cover from the rain.” He said most in the camp had lost loved ones to the earthquake, but that "living like this…with no help… it’s like we are dying mentally…”

Where happiness is a luxury.

And as if I wasn't down enough.

Woe is me, I'm a Misery Bear....



Because misery loves company eh?

On the other hand, I'm a romantic who believes in the power of love to change the world.

Gay love is a political act.

The kiss in was held peacefully at St-Michel but some gays went to Notre Dame anyway and witnesses are saying 200 Christian activists were expecting them, and after they started kissing, they were attacked with motorbike helmets and kicked."

Which is one reason why Valentine's Day for me is every day of the year. And of course the other is Sébastien. Who is everything I dreamed he would be when I was just a teenager. And who never ceases to inspire... or fool me... into believing that we build a better world.

I did tell you he was a Québécois idiot didn't I?

But I don't think I'll become a misery bear eh? Living in Harper's Canada is depressing enough.

I think I'll just wait a couple of years weeks until he comes home.

First talk about the horror of Haiti, where so many people have lost their loved ones. And what more we can do to help them.

Then hold the flowers and the chocolates.

But carry on like we began....