My Valentine's Day rant

Valentine's Day. Those two little words seem to bring such fear and loathing to so many people. Single people feel left out. Men worry about what to get their wives or girlfriends. Women analyze their gifts to death or feel disappointed because the day wasn't special enough or they didn't get what they wanted. And everyone complains that it is just a holiday made up by the greeting card and chocolate industry. I have to tell ya, I don't get all the whining.

I have always liked Valentine's day. My mom always gave us a nice card. Nothing fancy but it was sincere and talked about what she loved and appreciated about us. If I was lucky I would get socks with hearts or x and o on them (and I do love cute socks). We learned about the origins of Valentine's day. How Saint Valentine supposedly married young couples even though the Roman emperor had banned marriages in an attempt to build a better army. And when Valentine was in jail awaiting his death, he became friends with the jailers daughter and sent her a note signed from your Valentine. Cute, isn't it? So for a long time, V-day was nothing but a source of joy for me.

Then I got to college and saw all the girls in my dorm moping about the whole week leading up to the big day. Every other holiday all the doors in the dorm hallways would be covered with cute signs and posters and pictures but not Valentine's day. Well, there would be a couple doors that belonged to recently engaged woman who would decorate but the rest would be blank or covered in anti-valentine's day propaganda. (And really, who did those girls think they were kidding)

I didn't get it. And it wasn't like I ever had any hot valentine's day plans, mind you. In fact, I had never even gone on a date on Valentine's day until I was married but I still didn't have the despair that I saw in some of my girlfriends. (Craig and I had our first "DTR talk" on Valentine's day but we didn't even see each other in person and the next year he was out of the country). I think the problem is people think about themselves too much. And I don't do this at Valentine's day, but I do understand the lure of self pity and how easy it is to think everyone's life is better than your own. I guess the heart is always redder on the other side of the dorm hall. The cure - begin to focus on others instead.

A perfect example is what our college group did this year. I can't take any credit because I didn't plan it and really only went at first because we were in need of some social interaction but we made cookies and cards for members of our church and residents of a local nursing home. But it ended up being so nice to know you were letting someone know you cared about them. You could also send notes or cards to friends you might thing be suffering from the Singles Awareness Day blues to let them know they are loved.

And yes, Valentine's day is over commercialized now but you whiners only have yourselves to blame. The stores wouldn't offer all that stuff if people didn't buy it. It is like the people who complain about all the Christmas stuff but then have their tree up two months early and buy hundreds of dollars worth of presents for their kids who are still young enough to appreciate a cardboard box.

I don't really know what my point in this is, I just had to complain about all those Valentine day complainers, which I guess makes me one too. Oh, well. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.