With Valentine's Day on Feb. 14 of this week, it seemed fitting to write about love and matters of the heart.

Love is perhaps the most fickle of all human emotions.

Who we love, why we love them and what they love about us in return, lost loves, failed loves, old loves and the loves of our lives have all been the topics of countless studies, books, movies, songs, talk shows (radio and television), as well as the reason for existing for some folks and the reason some people die.

There are those who are lucky in love. For others, it's a thin line between love and hate.

Some people only have one great love in their lifetime, while others have several soulmates to count.

Yet for others, they grow to love they're mates over time after realizing that although things may not be perfect (are they ever?), love really is like a fine wine that gets better as it ages.

Haven't you heard the stories of an elderly couple, married for many years, who die within days, weeks or months of each other because they literally die of a broken heart?

Love...it makes the world go around, and a lack of it could be the demise of the world as we know it.

We all have those friends, other couples, who just don't seem "right" together. She may be too young for him, or he may be of a different race or religion. Yet who are we to judge another when it comes to matters of the heart?

After all, the heart wants what the heart wants, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

In some parts of the world spouses are chosen by families. Arranged marriages in royal or aristocratic families still take place today. Arranged marriage is largely practiced in places such as India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia and East Asia, to some extent.

But in America, hey, who knows? I'd wager that while some unions may not be arranged in the sense mentioned above, the pressures of powerful families can have lots of sway with some young lovers from opposite sides of the track.

Imagine some millionaire oil tycoon telling his 30-something year-old daughter: "You will not marry this guy of a different religious background or less than stellar bank account, or you will be cut out of the family fortune!"

Wow! What an awful thing to do to someone...to tell them who they can or cannot love, to bribe them with money because of prejudice, ignorance or control.

Maybe I'm a romantic at heart, but I'd take love over money any day of the week!

The heart of the matter is this, pardon the pun, but the heart simply wants what it wants, and there's nothing anyone can do to change it...that is, until the heart no longer wants what it wants. Hence, the ficklest of human emotions.

Sometimes we have to just sit back and let love run its course...

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you who are lovers at heart, who love for no reason, who give love without expecting love in return, who love unconditionally, who are truly in love for the first time in your life, for those who are opening up their hearts to let love in, and for those of you who are loving outside your zip code, race, religion or job status.

And finally, to my Valentine: I love you as big as the sky to infinity and beyond!