So I haven’t much to say about the current Blizzard Blown Out Of Siberia that the Front Range is currently suffering from, nor about the torrential downpours I hear that Boulder is getting. I’m not actually there at the moment. I boarded a train Monday night for New Orleans via Chicago. At the present moment I’m eating chipotle rubbed ribs at Tomatillo’s on Frenchmen at Esplanade, listening to the feisty crooning of Ingrid Lucia across the street on the Southern Comfort stage by the U.S. Mint.

But y’all are all in my thoughts. Hang in there. Especially y’all working at the Boulder Public Library.

Before I left, I took a picture. Chekkit out.

LOVE HEALS

This is from the sidewalk in the Whole Foods parking lot on Pearl Street across from Target. I’d also seen some on signs pegged into shopfront lawns downtown, which included along with this angular valentine-heart logo a URL: LetLoveHeal.com.

My first thought: “Ah, what a pleasant meme to spread around.” My second: “I really hope it doesn’t turn out to be a come-on for religious proselytizing.”

See, it hadn’t been that long since a co-worker had handed me a “Get out of hell free” card at Christmas. Er, Christmas before last. And the one before that. And the one before… yeah. It wasn’t the jokey sort of card that Pagans like me sometimes flash at obnoxious street preachers. It appeared genuinely unironic, totally for reals, yo. It urged the reader to Learn The Truth Before It’s Too Late, and suggested a URL which, I admit, I never bothered to visit.

Anyway, I was hoping that the URL attached to the LOVE HEALS signs wasn’t going to reveal a similar intent.

And it didn’t. Hooray! Not all positive messages are attached to demands that you change your faith or pay money or whatever. This one meant exactly what it said… love heals.

Literally. Physically.

At the site, you find a Flash animation that resembles a web search form. Pre-entered search keywords cycle through: Friendship. Pets. Life. Romance. Touch. Clicking the arrow button brings you to a page with small red squares constellating around and between these keywords. Hovering over each brings up a quick summary, and clicking brings up the whole story. Each data point supports the site’s central thesis, that feeling cared for and expressing care for others has positive effects on the physical being. In other words, love heals.

As viral marketing campaigns go, this one seems benign, even beneficial. Surely people who believe in the healing power of love will act in ways that form healthy communities. The only thing that boggles my mind is this: Why does the web site employ a trademark symbol? LOVE™? Does this site have an additional, acronymical meaning for the word? Will we find out more when the marketing campaign enters its next phase? Will there be a next phase?

For possible answers to all these questions and more, keep watching the sidewalks around town. I suppose. Once the rain washes all that snow away, of course.