V . D .

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

It's interesting, my roommates and I were talking yesterday about Valentine's Day and what it means to different people. Personally, I wish we could all go back to third grade when we made paper mailboxes and brought cards and candy for everyone in our class. It feels a little cheapened to see tons of men walking around campus with bouquets of flowers in their hands for their sweethearts. One day out of the year.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about showing love to the people you care about. I'm all about showing love to the people you care about every day.

• Something cynical: The Onion's coverage on a tradition of stoning happy couples (it's absolutely hysterical).

• So for this day of love and charity, I'm including something inspirational: Jeffrey R. Holland's wonderful talk on charity, "How Do I Love Thee?" (audio can be found here).

• And something personal: Here's one of many of my love letters to the future love of my life. (I've written several, but just because of the circumstances, I'm launching this one into cyberspace and as this can be quite an insincere holiday, I hope you'll recognize my sincerity.)

Dear you,
I actually haven't written to you for quite a while, but seeing as how I've promised my 9 followers that I'll write, here we are.

I've learned a lot since the last time I've written. I used to see you as this wonderful refuge I'd find someday to embody everything that fits me perfectly. I think I've been let down in having that expectation because it's not exactly realistic to expect that all by itself. I can't expect you to do all the work to make this relationship meaningful, and I can't expect all my satisfaction to be from your innate characteristics. The thing is, you might be funny, or you might just be witty. You might be intelligent, or you might be a total space cadet. I've exhausted those possibilities in my mind, and instead I want to let you know that I am prepared to delve into this partnership one million percent and I expect the same from you.

I'm a pretty laidback person--and I expect you'll be pretty laidback too, because it's hard for me to get along with stubbornness and it's not very healthy because I can sometimes be a doormat--but if we ever do have disagreements, I promise to communicate with you. If we ever do feel tired of making it work, I promise to rely on the Lord to give me the strength I can't seem to find within myself, and hopefully you'll do the same. I promise to try and take every challenge we encounter as an opportunity to grow closer together.

Love, I promise more than my love to you. I promise commitment. I promise to be faithful--to God as well as you, because I know things work out when we keep close to Heavenly Father. I promise to be one with you and the Lord.

I have a few traits I imagine you won't find particularly favorable. I'm self-conscious and somewhat shy. I'm prone to sarcasm even though I dislike it. I'm a bit of a picky eater and I can't control my courtesy laugh so I might seem insincere sometimes even though I try hard not to be when I stop and think about it.

Thank you for taking all of me and helping me to be better. And thank you for allowing me to help you be better too. I anticipate us to have a rockin life together and the life after this one will just be fantastic. For now, though, I'm grateful to you for your efforts to become your best potential self. I'll try to show you the same respect by working on my standing with God. I'm doing it for you, for me, and for my Savior. Thank goodness He's playing a part in on our future relationship, eh? (:

I love you. Today and tomorrow.
-Whit