I'm 100% in favor of love

Feb. 13 always comes the day before Valentine's Day.

Really.

Look it up for yourself.

But the day before Valentine's Day isn't always Friday the Thirteenth.

Superstition is powerful -- even if we adore black cats. Most of us would say we give ladders on sidewalks a wide berth because of safety issues. But inside most of us is a fear of what might happen if we tempt fate.

Let's imagine that we could overcome our superstitions by letting Evil, representing superstition, and Cupid, representing love, go at each other in a no-holds-barred, last-man-standing battle.

Who would win?

I give Cupid the advantage, and not just because of his full quiver of arrows.

"Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to Love," Virgil wrote. I believe him.

Here are some things I love:

I love my wife as we approach our 40th wedding anniversary. I realized a few days ago that we do not have a copy of our marriage license. I distinctly remember the minister who officiated at our wedding telling us a funny story about ministers who forget to properly record marriage licenses. Suddenly I wondered why we never saw a copy of our marriage license. This week I called the courthouse in Liberty, Mo., where we got the license. "How do you spell your last name?" the friendly clerk asked. Within seconds after I told her, she said, "1965? Yeah, we've got it." Whew!

I love our sons and my mother and my brother and my aunts and uncles and nearly all of my cousins.

I love movies with happy endings. especially if the guy and the girl are cinematically destined to live happily ever after.

I love songs about true love that are sung by singers who sound like they are in love. My current favorite is Josh Groban.

I like cats, but I love kittens.

I love dogs that belong to other people.

I love big breakfasts -- the kind that have grits and hash browns, bacon and sausage.

I love marching bands on a crisp fall day.

I love the Oregon Coast, the Highlands of Scotland and those Ozark hills and valleys over yonder.

I love people who do noble things -- no matter how small or how big -- because it's right.

I love wildflowers tended by the Great Gardener.

I love the magic of reflecting pools.

I love anything starring Maggie Smith.

I love cheese pizza by the slice or a hot dog with kraut and mustard or banana frozen custard -- on the Staten Island Ferry.

I love San Francisco in February, when Midwesterners can seek refuge from the last sputterings of winter.

I love small red sports cars into which I do not fit.

I love waterfalls.

I love any opera by Puccini.

I love maps -- if they are accurate.

I love TV music channels.

I love out-of-the-blue phone calls from old friends.

I love watching my favorite team win.

I love the example set by loving people.

I love being old enough to say "No thank you" when offered liver and onions.

I love peanut butter (extra crunchy) and dill pickle sandwiches.

I love sunrises, even when I don't have to get up.

I love readers who say, "Good job, Joe."

R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.