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.
15 comments:
Am I the only one who remembers bitter, sad, ANGRY Liam at Valentine's Day?
Hey, how you spend your Valentine's Day is your own deal.
I still remember...
I remember.
On the topic at hand, I've always found Valentine's Day to be somewhat contrived. I don't feel like we should designate an actual day to show our affection for one another. I'd rather receive a show of love (be it making me dinner, buying me a present, doing something totally off the wall,etc.) out of the blue and be surprised...that seems more romantic to me. On Valentine's day you expect to receive some demonstration of love. Of course, it is still nice to get that affection, but...yeah.
It's not that I'm a "Valentine Hater," but I am of the opinion that our (western) society puts to much emphasis on this day. I blame capitalists like Jeremiah.
Oh, and it does sound like you and Kim had a very nice time.
It must be difficult to get quality alone time like that (with a growing family and all).
I've always thought the idea of expectation generally leads to disappointment.
I guess you could say the same thing about Christmas, though, Sean. I don't need a day to give people presents or drink egg nog. Why not drink egg nog on the 23rd of March? I like egg nog more spontaneous than that.
I don't think of Valentine's day as a day where it's expected of me to buy a present. I think of it as an opportunity to put everything else to one side and devote to my wife.
"I think of it as an opportunity to put everything else to one side and devote to my wife."
And that's great (that sounds sarcastic, but it is not supposed to be).
"Yar!"
I still recognize February the 14th as the most important holiday of the year, Bitter Single Guy Day. I spent this year's festivities drinking beers, eating a steak approximately the size of my face, watched Die Hard, and then read a book whilst listening to Type O Negative CDs. It was excellent, though it's easier to go bigger on a weekend and hit the shooting range, or something like that.
Y'know, you could probably turn that sucker into a week-long event. Beers and beef and on the weekend, man it up with some kind of testosterone get-away. Do it up right so that your blood is replaced with somewhat seared cow's blood and you actually have alcohol running through your veins.
Then you could spend the week after that on "Near-death single guy week".
Sounds fun.
Cliff, we should go into business together and launch a men's retreat.
We could put our own spin on Bed & Breakfasts...
How about a B & B & B?
Bed, Beer, Beef? Or you could add another B (B4) and have Bed, Beer, Beef and Babes.
YEAH.
Hmmm...this has promise. I mean, I could contact Ron Peterson, and he could use his teaching files to steer us towards vulnerable girls. That fills one B. Beer is plentiful...we could rustle somebody's cattle...and we throw a few mattresses on the floor...stock the place with action flicks and every sports TV package in existence...this could work.
Yeah, it could work, and if you want more Bs, add some bikes, belching, bras, and barbecue.
Well, I think belching could just be assumed. Barbecue is also important, though...bras would simply impede the guyness of the event...biking, yes, as long as we mean Harleys.
That was the biking that I meant.
I don't know what I meant by bras. Maybe I meant brass... as in knuckles, so there could be lotsa fights... yeah!
Now THAT makes sense. Beef, alcohol and bikers automatically equals fights, so we'd better have some brass knuckles on hand. And billy clubs...and blackjacks. I suppose ballistic missiles would be allowed, but only with a special dispensation.
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