"All you need is Love."

"Bah bah da da da... All you need is love, love, love is all you need." The Beatles

Happy Valentines day.

I would say, on my day of days, still, songs are still my thing... I sing.. So for this particular Valentines day, the sappy crooner in me would like to rehash a few. Hence the small list below and a few other juicy tidbits...

"Beauty I've always missed with these eyes before, just what the truth is I can't take any more. Because I love you, yes I love you, Oh how I love you." Moody Blues

"I want you to be my love 'Neath the moon and the stars above, I want you to be my love 'Cause I want you, I know all you All you've been through." Over the Rhine

"I may not always love you, but long as there are stars above you, you'll never need to doubt it, I'll make you so sure about it. God only knows what I'll be without you." The Beach Boys

"...Close your eyes and I'll kiss you, tomorrow I'll miss you remember I'll always be true. And while I'm away I'll write home every day and send all my lovin' to you..." The Beatles

"But I want you to know, after all these years You're still the one I want whisperin' in my ear. You're still the one I want to talk to in bed, Still the one that turns my head. We're still having fun, and you're still the one." The Orleans

Every so often when i need a pick me up, I Google... or pch.search inspirational quotes by authors of which I am a fan. (Ummm, yeah, so I was going to try and skip over the fact that I actively participate in publishers clearing house - No, I am not Aunt Jemima and 80 years old, but there would be perks to winning anything at all. Let alone several thousand dollars.) Anyway... my typical curiosity leads me to my old friends and familiar names I've read along my way - Twain, Thoreau, Hawthorn, Hemingway, Hughes, Steinebeck, Dickenson, Whitman, Shakespeare, Angelou, Cummings my list could go on and on.. But then a few new ones were added to the list - Moore, Burns, Lucado, Meyer, Browning. And so my horizons and my facebook quotes expanded a bit. So I put together a couple love ones in honor of our dear friend St. Valentine, who I'm hoping is saving mine up... somewhere.

"Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love." Erich Fromm

"We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person." - W. Somerset Maugham

"I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out." - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"When you love someone all your saved-up wishes start coming out." - Elizabeth Bowen

"True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart." - Honore De Balzac

"The heart is the place where we live our passions. It is frail and easily broken, but wonderfully resilient. There is no point in trying to deceive the heart. It depends upon our honesty for its survival. [Born For Love]" - Leo F. Buscaglia

"The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They've known each other all along." - Jalal-Uddin Rumi

Everyone needs a little romantic

Please note. These are my humble opinions, learnings and face plants from past experience. Please proceed with humor.

Watching my regular tv favorites during a few days off work I observed a slew of funny commercials, cheesy commercials, well placed commercials and so on. Being a member of the Advertising community I am learning to pay attention. I am not an avid pro, nor am I an avid tv watcher. So the ones that tend to captivate me are typically the ones that apply directly to me, my age group or state of life. So when you apply these statistics it begins the filtering process. Online dating, alcohol, shopping, car leases, sales, and so on would happen to apply.

And so, an epiphany struck me as a sequence of commercials hit my big screen:

1. Picture this: Guy with puppy on a park bench attracts the attention of 2 beautiful girls plus a yoga studio of sweeties just behind them.

Typical, yes?

skip to next scene: Slew of guys lined up in front of a "Rent-a-puppy" in hopes of a similar result.

next scene: guy lies to girl and convinces them he rescued the puppy from a shelter. Girls oooh and awww over the puppy and the sweetness of the guy.

My reaction: ... really? You'd spend 20 bucks to rent a dog that is not yours to pick up chicks? Then you lie to them about it?

All commercial value lost.

2. Picture this: well known dating site has members take quizzes and "gives you a chance to get to know each other" before meeting...

My reaction: ... isn't that sort of common sense that you get to know someone a bit before meeting them for a drink or dinner? aka a date.

Again... commercial value lost.

Yes, I know neither commercial represented reality accurately. Guys do not usually stand in line to rent a dog to pick up chicks, and usually people who online date have an opportunity to talk prior to meeting. I guess my "turn off factor" was the lack of romanticism in it all. I hope the guys would know that even if they do have a cute dog, about 95% of the resulting effects of them and their perhaps rent-a-dog would be them picking up little puppy pee-dos for their designated time slot. And as for the 2nd commercial, no one in their right mind wants to go on a bad blind date... believe me.

I am quite possibly a naive believer in a fate-filled love story. I believe in the true blue can't live without each other love. With a path that was paved and wound through mountains to settle upon the one person who seems make the quirky journey of life make some real sense for the pair that find themselves in it. That God set this path in motion and plotted it out even before I came into existence.

I am certain there are a thousand other theories out there about love and relationships and fate and God and the pros or cons of it all. What about the knowing of each other's past experiences, families, scars, travels, hometowns and childhood? For me it takes more than a rent-a-puppy, or online dating. Maybe these things have worked for others- more power to you if you've got a great story about taking a buddy's dog for a walk and meeting the girl of your dreams while out on that walk, or maybe you decided to do a stint of online dating after a bad break up and found the one you were waiting for. 1 story is a possibility, 1 story is real. Now if you've got a saga like this one in your back pocket, I'd love to hear it - I'm a sucker. But if you're still out there looking for that right one, there are a few things I'd like to share with you about Victoria's Secrets - yes, she's got more than one and even more that have less to do with lingerie than you think (wink wink.):

1. Character. If you prove you have it, it goes way farther than other items you could flaunt. If you don't have it, you might want to work on it and hold off on the picking up of the ladies.

2. Be yourself and don't take yourself too seriously. Laugh a little. Usually it's cute.

** Please note this is my humble opinion. I am not the authority for every other wacky girl out there. Just this one. Some girls might like super duper serious.

3. Chivalry. Prove its not dead. I dare you.

4. Every girl wants to be swept off her feet. Take your time. Figure out what type of sweeping will work. Sweep away.

** Please note this is only applicable if she wants to be swept off her feet by you. If you're not sure, you might want to hold off and be sure prior to sweeping anything.

5. Ask questions. Pause and think before you ask the questions. I too have spoken too quickly and sounded like a total dumb ass... shakes head.

6. If you don't think she's thinking about it.. evaluate her. Is she really the girl that's going to think about it? Don't kid yourself. Some girls care, some girls don't. Trust your gut. Usually it is accurate.

So as I leave you, I'd like to wish you a happy single-dome, dating-dome, happy internet shopping and commercial watching. I hope it makes you think as much as I do. :)