Singles Awareness Day

Another Valentine's Day and come and gone, carrying with it the symbolic red hearts and tear inducing poems. And once again it has passed me by, leaving me standing here atop my hill feeling unphased and confused. The stem of my confusion if the point and purpose of Valentine's Day itself. The holiday itself originates, and receives it's name from, the death of a martyr by the name of Valentine, the death of which was recorded on the 14th of February. So, what may have started out as a day of remembrance somehow became warped to a day to celebrate one's affection's toward one another. While in North America and Europe this means one's affections toward the opposite gender, especially those that the individual is currently in a relationship with regardless of depth. In other places around the world, such as Mexico, the 14th of February is a day to show compassion toward fellow mankind and to thank those that have been friends to you, or so I have interpreted it.

While the show of affections toward others is a good thing, the purity of the holiday seems to have been waylaid somewhere down the road. People obsess over cards and candies, little paper hearts and handcrafted goodies. Still, all good, but, like the symbols of Christmas (The tree, star, angels, etc), the symbols of Valentine's have become just that. Nothing but symbols. Their meanings forgotten. People do the "Valentine's Day Thing" because it's now required by our society. I have not celebrated a Valentine's Day since I was a child, and there is no end to the persecution. It's just not allowed for a person to not celebrate this day of Love and the showing thereof. People wonder why I do not celebrate. First off, I really have never been into the holiday to begin with, and secondly, and most importantly, I am single. This means that I have no one to pamper with paper hearts and sobby poems. But they insist that I could give a Valentine to any female within my family. Sorry, but I believe that should I ever celebrate Valentine's Day, that I would do so for my spouse, and her alone. Giving a Valentine to your mother is fine for a child, their concept of love doesn't stretch much further then her anyways. But for a man such as myself to give his mother a Valentine? Seems to clash a bit, in my opinion.

But that is all selfish self-ramblings.

The real point I wish to make here is this: Valentine's Day is a pointless holiday adopted by Hallmark and twisted about to become one of the greatest holidays for card sales, seconded to Christmas alone. Candy was inserted into the mix, becoming another object with which to pamper one's soul mate, because there is no gift like the gift of getting you fat. Sorry, I had to throw that one in. I laughed myself senseless earlier today when it came up within a conversation with my mother. But the biggest question is this: why celebrate our love and affections once a year? If a person is in a relationship, especially if married, then shouldn't every day be Valentine's Day? Every day we should celebrate and show our affections for our chosen companion. Why wait for a single day when you can celebrate all year long?

Every day should be Valentine's Day.

"We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it." - John Lennon