Valentine's as Compassion

Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question is what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated. People don't become inured to what they are shown...because of the quantity of images dumped on them. It is passivity that dulls feeling.

--Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others

[thanks to grrrl meets world for the quote!]