WJBC Forum: Recognize the wonderful things about you first

An employee arranges roses at a flower shop on Valentine's Day. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

I always get a kick out of fictional TV-towns that have every business imaginable to service a plot point.

Even as a young boy watching Superman, I remember Metropolis conveniently had a dam, a prison, a power plant, and among many other ridiculous concerns, a federal mint.  Though it’s a real-life community, Bloomington-Normal has the diversity of businesses to keep TV show writers busy for years of programming.

Special Valentine’s Day show? No problem. Greenhouses aplenty. Niepagen’s for like a hundred years and too many to mention today. Also, as far back as I can remember we’ve had homemade candy stores. Boylan’s before the Chocalatier. To say nothing of a big nut factory and a huge candy factory.

When you’ve been around as long as I have, when you have a large extended family, not to mention the biggest voice in the room – some would say the loudest mouth – well, sooner or later – and then often – you’ll be allowed to say the blessing before a meal, or an invocation before a meeting.

Along the way I borrowed a formula from somebody: Thank the creator for your blessings, then remember those who don’t have those blessings.  In the haste to remember our loved ones on Valentine’s Day, it bothers me that there are so many folks out there for whom the day is a literally painful reminder of what they feel as a lack of love.

That’s a deeply personal void that unfortunately can’t be easily fixed with a joke or a kind word.  I’ve found myself at times talking to kids and adults alike, who’ve either had a heart broken or who just fear they’ll never, ever find that special valentine.

I’ve tried to help by saying you should recognize the wonderful things about yourself first and foremost. Do the things you enjoy most in life and that special someone will notice your enjoyment and notice you. The special guy or gal seems to come along when you’re not looking for him or her.

I remember the first time I delivered that bit of homespun advice. I was making it up on the fly, trying to make a good friend feel better after her blackguard boyfriend took off in search of something else. It was in Tumulty’s Pub in New Brunswick, New Jersey. We started dating six months later and will be married 31 years in July.

This is Dan Irvin, on WJBC’s forum.

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Dan is Secretary of the Board of the McLean County Chamber of Commerce, Vice-President of the Bloomington Public Library Foundation Board, and a member of the Heartland Community College Foundation Board.

The opinions expressed within WJBC’s Forum are solely those of the Forum’s author, and are not necessarily those of WJBC or Townsquare Media.