Valentine's Day

When you hear the term "Valentine's day," what do you think?  Do you think of giggly girls, wondering what their boyfriends are going to do for them?  Do you think of paranoid boys, who are worried about screwing everything up?  Do you think of singles, who wax and wane about "single's awareness day," sadly wondering when the day will come that they get to celebrate with someone, languishing in a sea of singleness and self-pity?  Do you think of chocolate, and flowers, red hearts and pink balloons and overpriced stuffed animals?

I must confess, that I myself find Valentine's Day highly over-commercialized.  While chocolate or flowers (or even something more creative!) are a nice sentiment, they lose a lot of their specialness when the only reason they’ve been given is because the mass media says that it’s the “thing to do.”  If you have to be told on a specific day in February by a trite Hallmark card and overstuffed teddy bear that someone loves you, there is, in my opinion, something not quite right about your relationship in the first place. 

It’s interesting, however, how the connotation changes when you add a “saint” on the beginning of the holiday.  There’s a big difference between “Valentine’s day” and “Saint Valentine’s day.”  Saint Valentine, the person that the holiday was named after, was a real person.  While not much is definitively known about his life, it's amazing to me how my perspective changes when I think of "Valentine" as a living, breathing person, rather than an over-commercialized holiday.  

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for showing affection to people you love.  But it just seems to me that people have forgotten that being in a relationship is not the summation of life.  Being "in love" is not the only goal for people to strive for.  And romantic love is not the only type of love.  There are friends, family, classmates, colleagues, lonely people on the street or in the elevator, who are all looking for love.  

So the next year, when Valentine’s day rolls around, take the time to show love to someone you don't usually pay attention to on Valentine's Day.  Make an effort to call your family, or to send a card to your friend, or whatever springs to mind...be creative about it!  At the very least, do something to make a stranger smile.  Oh yeah…and then surprise your sweetheart and celebrate Valentine’s Day on some random day in the middle of April :).