"You and me kid," legendary screen actor Humphrey Bogart whispered to the ever-so-lovely Ingrid Bergman in that famous movie Casablanca. And those who believe in the magic of love swooned in their theater seats.

That movie won awards years ago-and love is still nearly everyone's treasured emotion. Love is the most intangible, yet the most precious gift we can give.

So, why is it we get buried in advertisements and television commercials with a loud and clear message?

"If you buy that 4-carat diamond she'll know you love her," or, "With a touch of fifty-bucks-an-ounce perfume and a steak dinner that guy will never stray from your side."

If you believe that - there's a piece of real estate somewhere near a divorce attorney's office that is just waiting for your investment.

Between you and me, the more the deluge of television and mail advertisements interrupts my life, the more I subconsciously file that brand name in my memory category of "avoid at all costs." How dare they interrupt "Deal or No Deal!"

Maybe it's that cranky oldster syndrome that irritates me. Some say that happens. And I will attest to feeling that this time of life is mine alone to decide how it will be spent, and commercials are not high among those priorities. But I digress.

Poet Robert Frost wrote, "Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired."

Joe, a local fellow, told me that last year he carefully picked out flowers, candy and decorations for Valentines Day and hurried home to get the surprise set up before his wife arrived.

Boy, was she surprised.

It was Jan. 14, not February. Joe awkwardly admitted, "I had do it all over again one month later." Asked if the reward justify doing it twice, Joe said, "Ohhhh, yes."

John Ciardi wrote, "Love is the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the middle-aged and the mutual dependence of the old."

For parents who fondly (or not so fondly) remember their kid's teen-age years, author Jules Renard realistically wrote, "Love is like an hourglass with the heart filling up as the brain empties."

Regardless of where one's love profile fits, sweethearts agree that Valentine's Day is to be celebrated and best not forgotten! Remember too that "Love grows best in a fertile field of humor."

Consider that Groundhog Day and Valentine's Day share similarities.

The Book of Answers by Barbara Berliner with Melinda Corey and George Ochoa questions accuracy of groundhogs' weather predictions:

"Over a 60-year period study groundhogs have been only 28 percent accurate, noting the rushing back into burrows as having more to do with sexual desire or hunger than weather or shadows."

When Pearl Harbor was bombed, World War II began and love relationships took on challenges of uncertainty, long separations-love based only on memories and infrequent mail. Kids grew up in a hurry. Emotions were high and infatuation frequently mistaken for love. Yet the love that survived was stronger.

Oscar Wilde observed, " Men as a rule love with their eyes, but women love with their ears."

The man who stole my heart kept our love alive and growing through our daily treasured conversations. Gordy Byers and I became real-life everyday partners, not merely legally licensed observers to a relationship.

Aging does not end romance. Watch how folks smile back at grey-haired couples holding hands and walking. I wonder if younger folks are amazed at their lingering love or think they're just holding each other up. Maybe both.

Love is the compelling basis for all human need and existence, the balance that makes everything worthwhile, the catapult to energy giving desires to create a better world.

Following their chance encounter in Casablanca, Bogart declared about Bergman, "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine!"

Does fate play the trump card in romance? Or can we will it?

As beloved vocalist Nat King Cole sang, "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and be loved in return."