Valentine’s Day

Ah, Valentine’s Day! One of the most repellent days on the calendar. A day to celebrate the love one’s has their partner. A day of romance. Well, really a day built on consumerism and guilt.

I have nothing against celebrating your love for your partner but the idea of one specific day for this is absurd. Celebrating love should be spontaneous not forced. It should not be encapsulated with a Hallmark card and a box of Laura Secord chocolates. And it should not be relegated to a cold day during winter.

But as always, an idea has been hijacked by the corporations to make money. Hearts go up, ads come on to remind us of the importance to tell our loved ones how important they are in our lives. So buy a card, a box of chocolates, some flowers, a diamond ring to show your love. Otherwise you will be in the dog house for the next few months.

The implicit message is that if you don’t, you are a cad. This whole day is predicated on guilt. These big companies pressure us to buy their crap because if you don’t, then you don’t love your partner.
Yet from early on we are taught this. And the delicious taste of rejection. In elementary school, we had to make cards for people we liked and on the 14th it became a pissing contest for who got the most Valentines.

For someone like me, shifting from school to school every couple of years, I never really got to know anyone so I was always the outsider. What a great message to send to a kid! You got no Valentines so you are not worth while.

And what message does it send to people who are not in a relationship or in a bad one? The reality of this day is it is just consumerism gone mad. Between Christmas and Easter we can’t make any money so let us construct a day where people have to spend money.

If I were currently in a relationship, it would be understood that this a day I will have nothing to do with. I prefer surprising him with a rose on the whim of a moment. I prefer to make him a special meal because it felt right. I’m not going to do it because I have to or it is expected of me. That is not love, that is manipulation.