The biggest test of relationships seems to come around Valentine’s Day.
Correction: the biggest test of sanity for anybody seems to come around Valentine’s Day.
The holiday to celebrate love is becoming–if it hasn’t already–a symbol of blatant commercialism eclipsed only by Christmas. A demographic pulled for 2017 indicated that the average expenditure for the day is $136 per person. My recent excursion to the supermarket proved that’s gone up a bit more; I wove through endless displays of confections such as a half dozen dipped strawberries at $16 (champagne not included), bundles of roses and little orchids with big price tags. Along with the guacamole and hot wings for the Big Game tomorrow, the madness was intimidating, except that I wasn’t there for any of it. I bought my dinners for the week, some milk and bread, and shook my head at the continued disappointment at the cookie aisle, which has been devoid of my favorites for three weeks now.
People fall into a spectrum of those who have somebody to love, and those who do not. Some do currently, and some don’t currently. Some have been wrung out to dry multiple times, and they’re more hardened to it, while others have never known that exquisite moment of true love and are miserable. It’s what makes the day polarizing for people.
I remember, when I worked in the city many years ago, on Valentine’s Day some of the business-suited men were carrying large white boxes of roses or a gazillion balloons through the streets, on the buses and trains, while others were slogging through the day empty-handed.
Those folks who are single, widowed or divorced watch and ruminate. Those folks who are married, engaged or dating take note of what’s going home to somebody else, in anticipation of what is to come when they’re home at last.
Unfortunately the day doesn’t end well for everybody, with fighting, broken hearts, murders and suicides on the rise around such socially requisite holidays each year, it’s worth thinking about why we go to such lengths to divide the population in that way. The businesses making these expensive presents get richer, while psychologically the rest of us sometimes get poorer. The only thing missing is a tree. There is a network on cable that does nothing but romantic movies all year, so they don’t even have to label them for Valentine’s Day: it’s 24/7/365 for them already.
And don’t forget the tradition of giving little cards out in school, where some decorated inboxes are chronically emptier than others and the snubs serve as the first lesson in where a little child may rank on that spectrum when it comes to their worthiness for affection. It shouldn’t be that way.
After all, everybody doesn’t observe Christmas, but everybody deserves love.
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