Feb 9, 2010

valentine's day

Of all the commercial holidays, I think it is the worst culprit. I remember one valentine's day back in the 90s when this guy got his wife a Rover (really nice car to us in the Brit commonwealth). It made front page news the next day...my teenage mind thought that was just the best thing ever. But really, what was it for? V-day gets a fail in my book.

First of all, I'll admit, I wouldn't be writing this is if I got a day off. Yea, I'm that shallow. Then there's the pressure to do something on Sunday when I really just wanna chillax...well, too bad. We're chillaxin'

Now onto my spiel.

What really is valentine's day? Like, seriously. I won't say I've done exhaustive research into v-day but if I can't figure it out at almost 30 and no one can offer a brief sensible history of why we even celebrate love on Feb 14th versus Feb 10th, or why it's called Valentine's day, we should rethink. The first thing is we could rename it. I don't hate on Mother's day or Father's day cause we've all decided that we'll celebrate mothers and fathers, respectively. I sure am not celebrating Valentine or Saint Valentine or anyone associated. The next, lets start a love everyday revolution. Who cares abt Feb 14th?

Second, who is it about? When I was younger I thought it was about celebrating love in general. Parents would do cute things for kids (my mom still wishes me happy v-day and I love it of course...but she does cute stuff everyday) and kids make cute cards but somewhere along the line there's a transition. Once you get older it gets all messed up. The net push is toward people in intimate relationships. So single people (if they even care) aren't included. Granted holidays like mothers day and fathers day can suck if you've lost (a) parent(s). Maybe this ramble should be about how all holidays suck...

Then, even if you are married, dating, or in a relationship, it isn't even fair. My very reliable wiki source led me to American Greetings who reports that men spend twice as much as women on average. Why am I complaining again? lol

That leads to my final grievance. It is one heck of a expensive holiday to be having no meaning. It's not an anniversary nor a birthday. Some nerve.

In conclusion, yup, even rambles have shape and form, *gigglesnort*, v-day surely isn't the lone culprit of why people hate holidays but it's a great target. I can find something to love about most holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, mothers day, and fathers day but any grievance you have related to holidays (expense, loss of meaning, wasted calories, etc), take it out on this one. It can be all your holiday-related issues rolled in one. I still plan to wish people happy v-day (when I remember) and I am most likely gonna do something (tho nothing compared to the average person) so am I a hypocrite or just a hamster on the wheel of life?

-----end of ramble-----