Free Write: Valentine's Day

I suppose that in the spirit of this so called “Holiday” which approaches us, I should do something dealing with love for my free write this week. Hmm...this is a hard one—I’m not much of a fan. Of course, I could always take the opposite point of view and talk about the tragedy of love, or as Sam put it in “Love Actually” the “total agony of being in love.”

Love isn’t really all about agony and tragedy—and even when it is, who doesn’t need a little agony and tragedy in life anyway? “A girl likes to be crossed in love now and then.” You should know where that’s from. But I don’t think that a day like Valentine’s day is really going to help any relationship flourish. All Saint Valentine really did before he became a martyr was to hold a feast of lover’s on February 14. And even then, the tradition of Valentine’s Day wasn’t started until Chaucer wrote about it in his book “Parliament of Foules.” There is no great tradition about the day; no reason, religious or otherwise, to celebrate it. All it does is give everyone a reason to spend money, get dressed up, and show off what a great catch they got.

I suppose I’m being a little too hard on the day. It’s a nice thought. A day to celebrate the love in your life. But when you’re the one celebrating a carton of ice cream, it’s a little hard to see the beauty of such a thing. Of course, ice cream can be a very attractive date. It just seems to me that everyday should be a celebration of love; that really, going out on Valentine’s doesn’t seem any different than going out any other time. Maybe you choose a more expensive restaurant or buy some roses. As for me, I think I’d rather get a bouquet of daisies unexpectedly, than a dozen roses on a day when everyone else is getting roses too.

Even though I say all of this, the truth of the matter is, I would not say no to a date and flowers from a hot guy that I’m in love with. Oh well, maybe next year.