What are you doing for Valentine’s Day?
That’s a question I’ve been hearing all week, directed toward both myself and others, as well.
The answers ranged from “Well, [enter bubbly significant other name here] and I are going to the park for a picnic, watch the stars come out and stare into each other’s soul until we need eye drops” all the way to “Psh, are you kidding me? I’m staying home, watching the epic romantic failures of “The Bachelor” and treating myself to a heart-shaped box of mystery-filled chocolates.”
Before I get started, I’d just like to say that I’m not a bitter person. Well, for the most part, I’m not. And oddly enough, I do believe that sometimes, fairytale loves and happy endings can exist in the dystopian world we live in.
By the same token, though, can one day be considered the most romantic, the most fairytale-like, most sickeningly lovey-dovey? I know, I know. It’s a question that cynics and singles love to ask. And it’s a question that has been asked for as long as I can remember, but I’m really curious.
How do we go from beaten, beheaded saints to flowers and stuffed animals?
Like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie pop, the world may never know the answer to such an inquiry.
On the other hand, I guess it makes sense that our society would latch on to such a love-laden holiday. For example, many popular songs are based around loving someone, breaking someone’s heart, having a broken heart, wanting someone to love you back, busting the window’s out of someone’s car for cheating and so on.
A movie plot is often considered incomplete without a love interest, a love lost, the lovelorn, the love-hate clichéd relationship, blah, blah, blah.
Without such love devotions and affections, high school poetics such as “The wind of your breath/fuels my heart’s wings” would cease to exist.
Now, wouldn’t that be sad?
If you think about it, it’s surprising that more romance-centered days have not been scattered through the year by the consumer companies.
I’m tempted to walk into a greeting-card writer’s office and watch him or her work. Mainly because I’d like to count how many times he or she knowingly laughs at the pithy remarks scribbled down within seconds to sell to the hopeless romantics of America.
And now I know what I want to do with my life.
But, again, I digress.
I think my biggest issue with Valentine’s Day, though, has to do with the fact that competition often replaces the actual love supposedly being expressed. You get flowers, she gets diamonds. You go for a moonlit walk on the beach, he flies to Paris to star gaze off the Eiffel Tower.
And I can do anything better than you.
If the day is so focused on the purity and simplicity of loving another, it shouldn’t matter how you celebrate. Plans, gifts and over-the-top presentations of affection shouldn’t be compared or even expected. In essence, you should appreciate just having the one you’re with, be it a girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse, family member or friend.
Have a happy Sunday.
Debra Flax is a sophomore majoring in journalism. Her column runs on Thursdays.
