I read in the news that anti-Valentine's Day sentiment is becoming mainstream: once a possibly edgy response to an overly Hallmark'ed holiday, it is now being successfully exploited by cardmakers sensing yet another marketing opportunity (see
“Card makers capitalize on 'anti-V Day' with loveless Valentine greetings’
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070212/koddities/anti_valentine_s_day_1)

This is what people forget- cynicism is as easy to manipulate as sentimentality. The feeling of resisting the marketers can itself be marketed!

So perhaps it would be good to get beyond the dichotomy of cynicism vs. sentimentality and embrace something harder but likely more rewarding: courage. It takes courage to love (and I don’t specifically mean romantic love). For to love is to care, but to care is often painful. For instance, how can one love human beings without being pained at what they (we) do to each other? Yet to retreat into cynicism about human beings is self-defeating, for if it is based on anger that was based in love- once you lose sight of the love, what are you left with? Only negativity remains.