CotW: In Defense of Saint Valentine and His Day

This is a piece I ran twice when I was in college because it was a.) very popular and b.) my then-girlfriend, now wife, liked it so much I had to run it again. When I first wrote it I was single, the second time I was with Janelle. Now, obviously, I’m married. But I still stand by it. It is reprinted here as it first ran. And don’t grumble about this being a rerun. This is the second piece this week. It’s a bonus!

Good news everyone.  Valentine’s Day is here!  Of course I know I am one of about 6 people on Conn’s campus with a love of this holiday, but a man has to stand up for what he believes.

Before you give the knee jerk reaction that most have, that I only love Valentine’s Day because I am involved in a relationship, I’m not, so the argument doesn’t apply, (no, that is not a subtle hint.  Although…).  Secondly, allow me to point out that I know several people who are involved and they still hate Valentine’s Day and all the pomp and circumstance it brings with it.

Now that we have dispensed with any bias that I may have on the issue, we move on to how any single person could actually love this holiday.  Admittedly, there is a lot stacked against this holiday.  First off, it is most certainly a Hallmark holiday.  Greeting card companies, candy corporations, and jewelry stores everywhere thank the god of dispensing holidays for having the foresight to place a holiday in the near endless stretch between the holiday season and Easter (which is just barely a gift giving holiday anyway).  Besides the consumerism of it, there is the sense that those alone on Valentine’s Day are somehow defective.  It is acceptable to be single on every other day of the year except for February 14 is the way the holiday seems to make many feel.  Finally, it is just a damn cheesy day.  I mean, come on.  The candy hearts, the ridiculous amount of pink and red, the sight of a baby with a bow and arrow (actually that part always struck me as kind of subversive), it is all just so damn silly.  The holiday is bursting with so much forced syrupy sweetness that it is hard not to choke on it.

To me though, none of that matters.  It is all the excesses that we as a society have surrounded it in.  The heart of Valentine’s Day is what it always has been.  A holiday in honor of love.  We focus on the romantic love portion, but it is truly about the triumph of all love.  We all know the legend of St. Valentine so I won’t waste space speaking of it, but the summary in a few words is this: even laws cannot stop love.  Isn’t that a message worth celebrating?  Perhaps we do spend too much money on or, buy too many gifts to show something that is better represented by a slight touch, a whisper, or a true look of concern.  Honestly though, people have always gone great distances in the wrong way to show their love.  The most sought after emotion is often times, not coincidentally, the hardest to convey.  Valentine’s Day celebrates the irrepressible smile that bubbles forth when you see the person you are in love with, the promise of a first date, the feelings of caring and respect that family and friends share for one another.  It is all these things and more.  Can anyone honestly dislike something that pure?

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, (and not because I am going soft), I make this suggestion.  There must be someone out there who you care about, romantically or not.  Let them know.  Brighten the holiday for others and it will become brighter for you as well.  Cheesy, but true.  And when you seem the smile force its way on to the face of someone who was trying damn hard to be miserable on February 14, maybe then you can see why I love this stupid, silly, Hallmark holiday so much.

[Original timestamp 7:00 AM; bumped. -ed.]