Hearts and flowers

February 11, 2026
Owl Feather Farm, San Juan Island

Just a gimmick to sell flowers.

That’s the cynical, but common, view of Valentine’s Day.

Countless forgetful men (billions, really) have trundled out that excuse around 6pm February 14, but it’s a Johnny-come-lately tale in many respects. A day celebrating St Valentine goes way back in history; in fact, there were apparently two saintly martyrs named Valentine or something like that in Roman times.

Their day didn’t get linked to romance until the second millennium—the first known real reference was in Chaucer, of all places; followed by a mention in Hamlet. Love poems came along in the 1700s, with books guiding young swains in the art. Valentine flowers showed up around 1800, long before Teleflora. Today annual Valentine flower sales are estimated at $2.6 billion; chocolate, another $1.8 billion. Add in card sales and other goodies and the holiday’s total US value surpasses $25 billion, which would rank around #170 on the Fortune 500 list.

Whew.

Hearts and flowers

Nothing intrinsically wrong with all that, but there is a vastly different way to look at a day honoring love. After all, love and romance are not the same thing. Romance may lead to love, but real love is a treasure that grows and deepens over time. One common definition we like is that love is when you care more for another’s happiness and wellbeing than your own.

Imagine if we all practiced that all the time!

That’s a difficult task; Nature designed humanity with a healthy measure of self-interest necessary for preservation, among other things. Here at our farm, we need not look far to see real love in action: Our two dogs, Simon and Bleu, would not hesitate to place our welfare before theirs; our two horses, Cereus and Cocoa, care for each other so palpably it’s amazing. Our whole farm family is love in action day to day.

Hearts and flowers

But—flowers are wonderful. Chocolate is a native-food gift of our continent. Cards are wondrous keepsakes for future days whenever light somehow dims.

So please embrace the day, and look beyond it.

Still feeling cynical about this coming Saturday? It’s ironic that romantic love’s signature day started with Christian martyrs, but never mind that.

Remember George Bernard Shaw’s definition of a cynic: an informed optimist. Just for one day, let’s all emphasize the last word in his aphorism.

Hearts and flowers

Love faces many struggles in our chaotic world—this is its day and let’s give it its due. Perhaps we can all stretch it out through the rest of the year.

—Eric Lucas

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