Owning up

Being comfortable with feeling that the arrival of Valentine's Day as another 'Hallmark Holiday' can be a great risk (and I use the great with tongue firmly in cheek) for a relationship. It is certainly a day that is soooo over hyped that it generates fear and loathing. I know of people (ok, women) that have told me they expect to get a delivery of flowers, a dinner out and some sort of jewelery or they would be extremely upset by this huge slight on their relationship.

I can appreciate the formulaic steps people will go through to honor this tradition and perhaps for some relationships, this is something that really helps. The flip-side is that this expression is limited to one day. But really is it what anyone would want or is it the day we gauge our status of the relationship? Being a pathetic man, I have used this day in dating relationships in the past as a desperate attempt to build on a new relationship that really was smothering it in all practical matters.

Which brings to my thought about being honest on how you feel and can be shrouded by the gifts. I am not saying your are covering something up with gifts, but I am sure we all have our comfort levels with expression of our relationship and our feelings. I think some of naysayers (my self included) would scoff at people doing the traditional night out for dinner and the night of romance. It does have that slight cuteness to it, where you are celebrating with others out in public your relationship. It seems a little fucked out, if you ask me. It seems impersonal, where an anniversary seems more connected to your relationship versus the one day a year in the middle of winter to celebrate.

What am I missing on this 'holiday'? Maybe we could make it a universal love day not focused on relationship, but loving one another. Probably not, you really can't market or boost retails sales with a universal love day. What would you sell? Oh, I suppose you could hand out flowers to people you run into all day long, maybe do a gift exchange? Hmmm, this sounds even more pathetic.

It appears I will travel in my ignorance on the appeal of 14th of February. If nothing else, I have found a way to crap all over people being nice to each other. It is a gift.

This post was powered by the Zune Love Collection Playlist and I fully acknowledge the irony.