jlh | (no subject) (Reply)

I'm wondering why there is so much defensiveness floating around about the celebration or non celebration of Valentine's Day. I don't hate it but I've never really thought of it as a day that had all that much to do with me. Only once have I had a SO over V-Day and he wasn't much for it, so I've actually never received much of anything on V-Day. I think everyone can remember the way that Valentine's Day fell into the ritualized humiliation that so much of high school was; I think the single, unpopular folks feel badly enough without being reminded of their status by some group or another selling roses or carnations to be delivered in home room. So I certainly understand the distress over it. Whether you are single by choice or by circumstance, being so forcefully reminded of it as a negative can make you crabby.

Mostly, as a single person, I think of Valentine's Day (and the weekend closest) as a time to be scrupulously silent, to leave my friends in relationships completely alone, and perhaps to reach out to some other single friend for a non-dinner outing. Here in the city, most restaurants have V-Day specials and seatings and overpriced crazyness of various kinds that marks it, not unlike New Year's Eve, as a day you can't ignore even if you wanted to. As for commercialization, well, I really feel that is there to take or leave. If you don't like something already, then commercialization will allow it to annoy you even more, and if you do like something, commercialization really just makes you work on personalizing your experience.

So not celebrating V-Day doesn't mean you're an embittered Singleton anymore than celebrating it makes you into an insufferable Smug Married. I hope everyone has a nice day, whether they are out to a romantic dinner, eating in with their family, on the town with friends, or curling up at home with the Olympics or a good book. Me, I'm going out to a movie with