Wednesday, February 11, 2009

V-Day

I'm actually not a big fan of Valentine's Day - never have been. It's not that I think it's a bad thing for two people to express their love for each other, it's just that a truly loving couple shouldn't have to wait for some specific day in February to express their love. Two people in a loving relationship should express their love every day - and if you want to to pick a special day to celebrate, isn't that what your anniversary ( either wedding or dating anniversary ) is for? ( Seriously, April 6th ( the anniversary of when Ruth and I became a couple ) will always be more special to be than February 14th ). People certainly should celebrate their love, but I feel it should be done privately on days that really have significance to the couple. "Private" is the key word in the previous sentence. Valentine's Day has never really been a private holiday, and I think having a specific day for everyone to parade their happy relationships is really cruel to people who do not have a sweetheart. I mean, it's great to have a happy relationship, but I don't want to rub it in the face of those who don't have a happy relationship. Individual couples going out to celebrate on their anniversaries is fine, but all couples celebrating at the same time when there are so many lonely people out there? That just seems cruel. I know I felt awful every Valentine's Day in the years before I met Ruth, and I hate the idea of other people feeling this way. So yeah, I'd abolish V-Day if I could, though that being said, Ruth and I do celebrate Valentine's Day ( She'd kick my ass if I didn't. ).

Anyway, I wrote a poem about the cruelty of Valentine's Day way back on February 12, 1987 ( This was two weeks before I wrote HSG#1 a letter to tell her how I felt. I had just found out that she had a boyfriend, and I was feeling really down at the time ). The poem was called "Heart's Parade", and it was all about how the happy couples parade their love while the lonely people are forced to watch. I was planning to include the poem in this post, but as I started to transcribe it, I decide the poem was total crap. I remember it as being pretty good, and it was once included in a college publication ( I submitted some poems to a publication years later ), but looking at it now, it really just seems like crap. The wording is bad, the rhymes are bad - it's really kinda embarrassing. However, I still do like the last stanza of that poem, so I'll conclude this post with that stanza.

A young man looks on,
His heart feels like stone.
The parade is gone,
and he walks home alone.

Rich

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Same here totally not a fan of Valentine's day it's all just for making money i think, another day where they persuade people into spending money, and for the exact reasons you said.

We do this thing in school where you can buy roses for someone and on the last day they get given out in classes and they call your name out and people wait and see if their name gets called out to see if anyone got them a rose which is horrible cause you get your hopes up a little hoping someone might have gotten you a rose and then you don't get one and you feel like crap which is horrible.

And i so agree that you shouldn't just wait for a day to express your love to someone you should do it in your own privacy of your relationship with suprises and randomness. Which i think is much better.

Rochelle=>

munchkinhugs said...

I like Valentines Day, even when I'm not celebrating it personally.

I enjoy seeing people be happy :) -instead of arguing all the time.