Ode To Valentine's Day

The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them. ~Stephen King

How can a day symbolize love? Do chocolates and cards adorned with hearts and flowers and jewelry and lingerie encompass what love is all about? Red and pink are the colors of love? Valentine's Day confuses me. There is nothing in this world that can possibly say enough, cost enough or be enough to convey "I love you" from one person to another. You do not have to agree. This is strictly my opinion, after all.

I have not always felt "Bah humbuggy" about Valentine's Day...the day of love. My husband proposed to me on Valentine's Day way back when. He has given me flowers, taken me out for a nice dinner, given me gifts and cards and stuff like that in the past too. And I have liked it all. But now I kind of see it as a commercial holiday where people almost feel obligated to buy something that says "I love you." I prefer a homemade card with non-Hallmark sentiments written inside. Once my husband (then my boyfriend) made me a bowl of strawberries...he cut each slice into a heart shape. Each slice! Do you know that I would take that over jewelry any day? And when we were in high school he made me this heart in ceramics class and filled it with wax to make me a candle. Those are the Valentine's Day gifts that hold the most meaning for me. They need no words. Words would diminish their meaning.

For all of the hopeless romantics out there, celebrate on! Valentine's Day can be fun. I am just saying that there is more to it than its superficiality. Sometimes it really is better to say nothing at all.