Well Valentine's Day was quite the event to follow on facebook. (Sidenote: I honestly think I get the majority of my news from facebook by the way...Whitney Houston died--found out on facebook; it's snowing out side, found out on facebook; Gabby Giffords is resigning from Congress, you got it, facebook again.) Back to Valentine's Day. People were either super excited bragging on the wonderful people who love them and posting pictures of flowers and gifts, or else they were total haters talking about how this is a Halmark, consumer-oriented holiday that means nothing. Okay, haters....
Just so we're clear, I'm 100%, both feet in the single boat. I haven't had a "real Valentine" since a sweet boy snuck a card and stuffed animal into my locker when I was 16. As you see below, that was about 100 years ago. So I get where people are coming from.
But here's the deal. Whether the holiday is driven by Halmark or not, can't we appreciate a day to show love toward other people and to celebrate those in our lives who love us? And if Halmark profits off of it, well welcome to capitalism. Don't you think this world would be a better place if we had more days to show people that we loved them? Be it by flowers or just a smile in an elevator, by candy or opening a door for someone. More love can only be a good thing in this screwed up world if you ask me.
A lot of people commented that they refused to celebrate because every day should be Valentine's Day when people love each other. Yea, maybe it should. But let's be honest--it's not. There are days when everyone is so busy that they just don't have time to be the kind of husband, wife, friend, sister, daughter, whatever they want to be. Valentine's Day is a day that the calendar reminds us to stop and do that. If you ask me, one day is better than no days, even if Halmark plants the idea.
And lots of people referred to February 14th as Single's Awareness Day. I get that. I really do. But the day doesn't have to only be about people in relationships. We can send flowers to our girl friends and get crazy excited phone calls when they arrive. We can take a minute to thank our best friend for being an important part of our lives. We can do something nice for people in our family. We can send gifts to people who we know are having a hard time.
We can take a minute just to thank God for all of the love that we have in our lives...even if that love doesn't *yet* include a cute boy in square toed boots taking us to Valentine's Day dinner. Instead of being aware of my singlness, I chose to be aware of the love in my life. And let me just tell ya, it made the day so much better.
So, haters, you've got about 359 days until Valentine's Day comes around again. Let's use those to enjoy and appreciate all of the love in our lives--regardless of the source. Maybe if we all treated Valentine's Day as "Love in My Life Awareness Day" we would all be better off.
5 comments:
Amen, sister!
BOKG
True, true! There are soooo many other kinds of love - not just the square-toed-boot-wearin'-boy kind.
-College Roomie
That's a great way to look at it! I always feel a bit guilty when I post lovey dovey stuff on V-day so I keep it to myself :) My husband knows he's my Valentine so I don't think my friends list needs to get blown up with what he got me!
Ahhh I'm feeling the love all the way from Louisiana! :)
Emily from friends
Vday was an event on twitter, too, haha. I almost wanted to stay off all day because there were so many vday tweets!
I think we do need reminders to slow down and appreciate those we love, and while I am not overly sentimental nor do I like the capitalism that typically accompanies feb.14, I think vday does serve well as that reminder we so often need.
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