Hello Blogites,
OK, before all of you pro-valentiner's start boycotting my blog and calling me a bitter, unromantic old bastard, please listen. I'm not against romance in the slightest. In fact, I love some old school romance and nothing brings a tear to my eye faster than a bit of mush from time to time, but here's the thing. Valentine's Day isn't in the remotest sense, in any words pertaining to be to romantic, at all romantic. Valentine's Day is about as romantic as going to the toilet. It's about as romantic as watching a round of golf. It lacks every single element that makes something romantic. Let me explain.
In many ways romance is something indefinable. For each of us it's something different. For some people (the shallow vacuous ones) romance involves large diamonds and expensive gifts, for others it's something simple; a candlelit dinner under the moon, a picnic, a love note tucked into their lunch or a foot massage after a hard days work. What each of us defines as romantic is often significant to us. However, and I think here is the crucial element of romance, it shouldn't be contrived. Hence, why Valentine's Day is the most unromantic day of the year because it's the day we're told to be romantic. The day any old schmuck with twenty bucks in his back pocket can send his girlfriend/wife/lover a bunch of flowers or take them out to dinner and be oh so romantic. It's like giving a dog a treat because he sat down when you told him to sit down.
The worst part of Valentine's Day is the flowers sent to work. I don't apologise if this offends you because it's meant to be offensive, but only if your the sort of person who actually likes getting flowers at work. At my last place of employment all day flowers would come to the ladies amid ooohs and ahhhs and your so lucky, he must be the most amazing boyfriend/husband/lover, blah blah blah and all I could think was, those flowers aren't even for you. The flowers are to show everyone else in the office that you're married to such an amazing guy who just happened to have a spare twenty bucks in his back pocket. It's the worst sort of present. It's contrived, meaningless and actually quite selfish. My wife told me the other day that apparently in America, 15% of women actually send themselves flowers on Valentine's Day! Isn't that the saddest thing you've ever heard.
So, I'm sorry if you think I'm a miserable old git, but honestly I'm not. I love being romantic, getting romantic and all things about romance generally, but when you're being romantic because it's a "special" romantic day, maybe have a think about why it takes someone to tell you to be romantic to be romantic. We shouldn't need Valentine's Day to tell someone we love them, to buy them flowers or do something nice. And if you're wondering what Kristin and I will be doing on Valentine's Day, well the same thing we do every other day of the year, we'll be in love, which may involve a moment of spontaneous romance or it may not. Just don't tell us when we should be romantic because it just defies the whole point, it's being in love by numbers and we don't need numbers, just each other. See isn't that quite a sentimental, romantic last sentence and I didn't write it because I had to, because I had some spare cash or expect anything in return, but just because that's what romance is.
Blog soon x
