Valentine’s Day

“Remember, your Valentine’s card shows you care enough to send the very best, even though you’re too lazy to put it in your own words.”Melanie White

Valentine’s Day was on my list of things I would do when I was a grownup. My  father felt that it was Hallmark’s way of getting us to spend money and eat candy (something I was not allowed to have). It was just another holiday that everyone else could eat chocolate and I could not. 

I didn’t really see the love aspect. It looked like a holiday of getting gifts – jewelry, chocolate, flowers and I wanted that.  The media had made it clear that getting flowers on Valentine’s Day meant that you were loved. 

Valentine’s Day was the first holiday after my husband left. He sent me flowers.

I have gotten incredible flowers over the years – from boyfriends, guys I happened to be dating on Valentine’s Day, my children and my neighbors. They are instagram worthy examples that I am in the”club” of people who are loved and have the flowers to show for it.

The thing about complaining about Valentine’s Day is that people immediately assume you are a spinster with three cats. All displays of perfect coupledom on facebook and instagram serve only to reinforce the sneaking suspicion that everyone else is far more in love and having twice as much fun as you.

Yes, I like the cheesy cringe worthy poetry on those Hallmark cards and the cheap chocolate in heart shaped boxes.  I like the pressure on guys to be Prince Charming for a day.

Can you even say Happy Valentine’s Day to people anymore? Couldn’t that be considered  sexual  harassment? What is with Cupid slinging his arrow at people he has never met? Is that terrorism?

I like being in love. I don’t like being forced to be in love. Maybe my father was right about the holiday except that I am definitely  eating chocolate on Valentine’s Day because I can now.

Fly safe,

JAZ