Well, another Valentine’s Day has come and gone, nobody got hurt and cards were exchanged.
I know that Valentine’s Day is probably the most harangued “holiday” that is celebrated in these parts. (I wonder if they think that Ramadan has become to commercialized in other parts of the world…) If you look at it, though, every celebration in our culture is inundated with advertising, commercialism and the imposed need to buy everything in sight to appease those we love.
It takes some work to fight through the hallmark commercials and the chocolate hearts but I’ve always thought of Valentine’s Day (even when I was single and bitter) as a time for couples to put aside everything else – work, the kids (without committing criminal negligence), friends, hockey games and everything else, and concentrate on the other member of the relationship. Granted, people say it would be nice to be treated like that the rest of the year, and it would. It would be nice to be the sole focus of someone’s life. However, this is not practical and not possible with the need to pay for heating, eating, treating and other things that just don’t rhyme.
It was nice to have an evening alone with my wife. We sat in front of the television and watched a good TV show. We exchanged our cards, re-learned that we are important to each other, and it may have only been an hour out of the evening but was nice nonetheless.
So, for all you Valentine’s Day haters out there:
PBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBT!
Oh, but I have to say that despite her cynicism, Krista has the best Valentine's Day card ever.
