People have strong opinions on this holiday. Some revel in the opportunities for “Valentine Sex” with their girlfriends, also known as “Birthday sex” for when their love was born, well rarely is it born on that day, but it’s a good excuse. They celebrate by watching a relatively well-regarded film or television program at home in bed. Or maybe they play “Apples to Apples” in bed; really whatever they do must be in bed.
Most of the ‘passion’ towards Valentine’s Day is of a different sort. Perhaps Joel Barish (from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind) said it best how it was “a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap”. That is the other extreme: people upset, hurt even, by the reminder that they haven’t met anyone. Meeting the right one isn’t easy, countless dating sites make money off of this little problem, off trying to help you court or woo a special someone. Creating an online dating site is pretty much a sure fire way to constantly get advertising dollars, especially from porn site ads on the side for those a little disheartened from their search.
Each year the two forces line up, ready to confront each other. Truth be told, they are extremely diverse groups. Good and bad exist amongst them; I’m certain you’ve meet wonderful, lovely couples. Sometimes I meet ones so perfect I hope they marry, and I secretly hope I’m a close enough friend to get invited to their wedding (I love weddings and the possibility of free, catered food). Single people just might be searching for a certain someone to complete them. They are otherwise fine but maybe haven’t had as much success in meeting people as they’d like. For those types of people, you try to invite them to parties, Karaoke outings, in the hopes of matching them up. Being a matchmaker is a grand thing.
Wherever there is good, evil lurks. I’ve met totally messed up couples. One poor soul got beaten up since his “Sims Family” character died in a computer game after ineffectively trying to put out a fire. They had great, almost unbelievably amazing sex as you could see various heavy hand imprints on the shallow walls. Honestly, I wish I could get those imprints out of my head, but they mixed passion with crazy so well. I saw the two berate each other constantly, almost a comedic amount. Or it would’ve been comedic if I didn’t care about them. Personally, I thought they were horrible for each other but 8 years later, they married. Those not in relationships may not be any better.
I can think of one such individual from whom relationships eluded him for good reason. He never cut his hair. From the back, he looked like a girl and got a few people very confused. Each day he’d pay for things in ‘shoe money’ since he failed to purchase a wallet, which is generally used for those sorts of transactions. Personally, I saw him feebly explain to the cashier “Sorry, it was, uh, in my shoe.” Never at any point did it occur to him that perhaps he might want to take it out of his shoe before he met the cashier’s steely gaze. Or he could have bought a wallet. For him, it is somewhat obvious to see why he remained single. Plus, as icing on the cake, he failed to use a refrigerator over the winter, preferring to store food items under snow. When we returned back from a hard day of doing nothing, he dug out a gallon of milk fully frozen. There are many reasons he remained single, despite the charming way he named his Myspace page “Casual Sex” and joined the “Casual Sex” group on Myspace.
This year, I want some help from both camps. How can one get through this holiday without succumbing to either extreme? I want to get through Valentines’ Day without giving up what makes me so special. What I’ve tended to do is walk around Chinatown alone, looking at all those cute live creatures. Sometimes I see the courage of these creatures, trying to escape an inevitable fate of ending up on someone’s plate. A crab once escaped from its bucket of fellow crabs, yearning to break free from the oppressive tyranny, a society which wanted to eat him (or her). Looking on, I watched as the store owner eventually caught it. Rather than being upset at the crab, the store owner stood smiling, amused at this feeble attempt of escape. For that crab, I created a blog. If a creature which can’t even walk straight has faith, then you should too this Valentine’s Day.
Find that special someone. If you already have the one, or “a person” what do you do to celebrate this cliché-ridden holiday? What is a creative way of celebrating it? Do you buy chocolates, go ice-skating, or do you use it as an excuse to fool around at home as you watch something you’ve probably already seen a couple of times. I’m curious; I never know how people approach this day, besides from the single point of view. Coming from one of those losers at the game of love; I want to know what leads to those wonderful, lasting relationships. Love is an emotion I’m not very familiar with, how do you let this great things build up, how does it grow?
Opposites attract according to various sitcoms, parental advice, dating sites, advertisements, etc. If opposites attract, does that mean people keep their original personalities, or do they change over time? Having been around old couples, I guess they end up looking like one another after a period of time, their faces and bodies melting into one particular mold. They have the same interests in Rachmaninov and growing tomatoes in the garden. Maybe over time the two reconcile their differences and slowly meet each other’s expectations, becoming better people in the process.
Let me know what you’d do to avoid the Valentines’ Day problems, those trials and tribulations it entails. Can Valentines’ Day even be indie, or it is too mainstream: any attempts to be hip will fail miserably. Any suggestions or any way of shedding light on this elusive subject would be greatly appreciated. I’m in the dark on love, and I want to be brought into the light.