First thing first, today is Valentine’s Day. Yes, I acknowledged the fact and now if we’ll all get over it and on with our lives–I think that would be in everyone’s best interests! Anyway, I just want to take a few moments to discuss some things that caught my attention today.
Number one on my list is the obviously commercial aspect of this day (I can’t quite call it a holiday since, well, I know I didn’t get a day off for maximum enjoyment of whatever activities one might expect to have planned for a day such as Valentine’s Day). Just a quick look around at school and I spotted all the signs of heart-wise vendors taking advantage of heart-led people. Or perhaps people who are led by some other organ rather than the heart. Flowers! Chocolates! Telegrams! Mammograms! All due in the course of such an occasion so charged with perception/insecurity-driven demand.
By the same token, my school likes to do matchmaker quizzes a week before Valentine’s to sell the results back to unsuspecting youth on the day of.I filled out a questionnaire just like everyone else (Ms. Reichling insisted that we participate) but I’ve never ever bothered to actually pay money to see my results (e.g. compatibility for friends, romance, etc…). I figure, for one thing, whoever gets me as a high-ranked result would laugh it off (since only super-geeks with senses of humor are compatible with other super-geeks). It’s much easier (and interesting) to hear about other people’s results involving myself than to look at my own results for others (especially when I don’t exactly need a piece of paper with charts and data to tell me who/what I like). Honestly, I couldn’t care less who GLaDOS pairs me up with (though hopefully it’s not Cake)–I can pair myself up in my own head just fine, thanks.
I also found a lot of my friends had thought up quite ingenious ways of showing their affection for their respective Interests, one of the coolest of which was a heart-shaped pizza slice with a makeshift smiley face made of broccoli a girl had made. Well, broccoli-on-pizza grossness aside, I think it almost takes away from the originality of these displays just because they are prepared for Valentine’s Day. I’m all for showing special someones (though I used a plural form there, I don’t mean to say that I would have more than one at once: that would be false and difficult to explain) a nice time by doing something special just for them. However, I think that to do something particularly extravagant on Valentine’s might seem like I acted out of obligation as opposed to out of pure volition. “If everyone’s doing something special for their honey, I should too!”
Of course, there’s the question of “What if someone else does something for my Interest today while I decided not to?!” This is, quite possibly, one of the toughest things to wonder about. It comes down, I think, to how confident you can be in your connection between yourself and your girl (or boy, if you’re a girl/into boys and reading this). Yes, there might be some other guy who, oblivious to you or in spite of you, decides to go out of his way to impress your girl. Though this may be a little late (seeing as how Valentine’s is nearly over anyway), do not panic! There are two possible outcomes once such an unfortunate (and unlikely, IMO) situation arises. Either your favorite girl will be unmoved by this usurper’s display, landing you tried and tested as being her favorite, or she will sidle off with this new guy and you’ll be left to mourn the loss. Now, this latter option is clearly the opposite of what is desirable (unless you want to be spurned or something), but it’s really not so bad. I mean, if she really did saunter off with another person so easily then you two probably weren’t that committed to begin with or she’s easily won over. Either way, you come out as the hero who either stands tall with his maiden’s heart now proved to be thoroughly his, or lives to fight bigger battles another day for a more worthy maiden.
Gender roles! We all love them secretly. However, in hopes of achieving the semblance of modernity, we deny their importance while furtively hoping to find a way to fulfill them discretely. As I understand it, this is more or less how it goes: girl lures boy, boy tries to impress girl, girl tests boy, boy proves himself to girl, girl accepts his offer (or rejects him in any case, proving herself to be more demon than woman). It’s how nature works! Many times, it’s silly things like the traditions of Valentine’s Day that give pretty much everyone the chance to fulfill some sort of prefabricated notion of what it means to be male or female, and for that alone, perhaps this day does have some merit. It allows people who might otherwise never do what they really want to for lack of an excuse (like we need excuses to know and feel and act as we are!) a clear-cut opportunity to either man up or woman up for a day. For this, I suppose Valentine’s is not at all just a hassle to these people.
In any case, here’s me wishing everyone out there at least a decent Valentine’s Day–I know mine pretty much rocked for the first time in several years! If you’re clearly paired, perhaps take the time to enjoy it with your pair-tner. If you’re not so neatly packaged, enjoy your messy connection for the extra tasty of the circumstances (I’d think most people belong here anyway). And if you’re not involved with anyone at all, well, enjoy yourself (hopefully you didn’t take that in the nasty way) and… I know some people you might want to give a call? I don’t know, I’m just saying.