As I do every morning, I woke up and began to read the news. This lovely piece from CNN entitled, "Valentine's Day... heaven or hell?" caught my eye. The majority of the article was wrought with stories of Valentine's Day mishaps. The writer obviously was suggesting through the article that V-Day was more hell than heaven.
Observing others plans for the day has been quite entertaining. A few married friends have mentioned that they aren't planning on doing anything. A couple of them mentioned they have no faith in their spouse to remember or to do anything special anyway.
On the single side, it's even more comical. It's interesting to me the various approaches people take to this day.
I'll try and classify these people into three groups, the daters, the makers, and the haters.
The 'daters' are the people who have either been dating someone for an extended period of time or are just starting out to date. One guy, who acknowledges the chances of his relationship continuing much longer are slim, decided to go way overboard in his Valentine's Day plans. He's planned for flowers, balloons, chocolates, an evening at a nice restaurant, and even a small necklace. I suppose it's all a nice gesture, but if you are already having thoughts about ending the relationship do yourself a favor and scale it down a bit.
A few other daters are at early stages of dating someone where it's been no more than a month since the first date. A couple of them aren't doing anything huge. Maybe go to dinner. One is attempting the same overboard method as the guy I mentioned previously, though he's only been on two dates with the girl. That one will be fun to watch to see how it all ends up.
I guess for me, it's funny to watch the mental struggle that others go through when it comes to Valentines Day. What to do, what not to do, it's like they're taking shots in the dark.
The 'makers' are those that make the best of the day regardless of whether they are dating someone or not. If they're in a relationship, they acknowledge it, do something nice, and move on with life. Others who are not dating go out and do something anyway. They're confident with who they are as an individual and know that having someone or not isn't going to make or break their entire life.
The 'haters' is pretty obvious. These people are the same type of souls who classify the day as 'single awareness day.' They are bitter towards the opposite sex, when really they only have their self to blame. While co-workers or friends receive flowers and candy, they congratulate them to their face while ridicule seethes within.
In the case of women, this reminds me of a line I once heard that, "A woman has the exact love life she wants." The bitter ones refute this, but the truth of it remains anyway.
Some have 'anti-valentines day' parties where they sit around with other bitter people and console each other in their plight. What they should be doing is playing 'Spin-the-bottle' or 'Seven Minutes of Heaven.' Maybe some good clean interaction would loosen up the rickety-old soul and turn them into a 'dater.'
You might be asking after this tirade what my personal take is on it. I'm not labeling it heaven or hell. I think it's just another day, but a day that affords one the excuse to do something nice for another person.
So I took the opportunity. I picked one person who I associate with and did something nice for them. They probably didn't deserve it, and I sure as heck don't expect to get anything from them or even out of it. I did it for solely selfish reasons. Contrary to popular opinion, I actually like doing things for others. Hence, I used the opportunity (excuse) to do something nice. The worst that can happen is it might make their V-Day a little better than it otherwise would have.
The key to it all is in the word, sincerity. When people aren't sincere in the giving, and even the receiving, that's where I turn bitter. One small example lies in the amount of text messages I've received just while I was writing this. These mass texts of wishing Happy Valentines Day are from different people but the statement is exactly the same. It's like one person wrote a text and then it just keeps getting forwarded on to others. If you're one of those people you're extremely lame!
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