Monday, February 8, 2010

True love...

Being the romantic I proudly label myself to be, I must confess that Valentines Day is not a favorite of mine. You may ask how can this be??? Well a tale of 1998 explains it all.

Valentines evening & I was dutifully at my post as Blockbuster manager. A couple came in already in an argument: it seems he got her nothing & she was beyond upset. Movie chosen & at checkout she engaged me...blah, blah blag..am I right??? Well..I asked her...
"Is he horrible to you???"
"No" came out & boy was she confused.
"Does he cheat? Beat you? Treat you without respect??? "
"No, no, no he's great."
"Then what do you need a card for on one day, when he reminds you all the time????"
Her face softened, he told me I was his new favorite person & together they went off to watch their movie with popcorn.
Valentines Day was created by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD to express love in a time of no Red Envelope, Hallmark, EHarmony, FTD: you name all the nonsense we obsess over, it simply did not exist. I've seen single girlfriends depressed on the 14th that they have no date, no flowers, no nick nacks instead of focusing on the love of friends & family. I've witnessed men running around like a chicken with their heads cut off in a drugstore on the 14th buying teddy bears & the card no one else wanted because they forgot & dread going home empty handed. A coworker once went to tears when he husband sent a great plant basket for her desk & not a dozen red roses, which for me is passe. All this drama. All for what????Expressing love, true love has nothing to do with all the disposable melamine, fluffy animals , sugar concocted offerings the retail world is trying to force down your psyche as a requirement not a testament. True love is giving of yourself to create a feeling of safety, contentment & peace in another for always not merely the 14th day of February. There's not a solitary material item that can express this: its a lifetime journey of humanity. This is true romance, true love.
Wishing you true love everyday.

Images courtesy of the genius Michelle Rago