There was another post, but it seemed to grumpy for Valentines. I've never really been a Valentines kind of girl - my favorite card of this holiday for years was one given to me in high school, form a fellow single misfit. It was a sympathy card, unaltered in any way - "in this dark time of loss and sorrow" sort of thing.

But today I saw a man on his way home from work, careful roses wrapped in plastic with a dusting of snow on them, red fire under ice. There's a lot of hope and love out there. And I've got a lot of love in my life - my friends, some of whom are listed in the side bar here, are some of the finest examples of humanity on the planet. Generous, tenacious and willing to dare, they are my heroes and I look up to many of them. They're not perfect, but they're perfect for me. So here's a poem for them - it's still my favorite of Shakespears sonnets, #29.

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Or queens, as the case may be. Love you guys.