(no subject)

[pantryslut]

Yes, whenever you try to contain an emotion within the confines of a day, people get ambivalent and cranky and moody and chafe at the artificial constriction of a mere 24 hours. When you add the roaring sentimentalizing capitalist machine on top of that, one that reduces the worth of anything to dollars spent or earned, people get bitter and critical and start to protest. Add a dash of societal pressure, emotional manipulation, the whiff of duty, and we end up with a heart-shaped bomb, ticking.

I'm sympathetic to all that, really. And yet I am also a sap. So.

What I don't like about Valentine's Day is all about the commercialism. How the price of roses goes up, and it's impossible to get a reservation at a nice place to eat. That makes me cranky, too. The way it makes single people feel left out and somehow lesser. That's no fun.

What I like about Valentine's Day:

Cards and flowers and chocolate, and the fact that you can give them to anyone, even platonic friends. Also, the color red. Candy hearts, too. Sparkly things. Silliness. Didja know I could be a silly person? You just haven't caught me at the right moment.

I like the anti-Valentine's Day events people have, from pillow fights to chocolate parties, because actually, I think they're in just the right spirit. Yes, I am co-opting your protest. Deal.

I like the songs that aren't afraid to show the heart on their sleeve, the simple melodies and the soaring note that opens your throat and expands your chest until you can feel exactly why the heart is associated with love. It's not just because of the flutter in your pulse when you're crushed out. Love is pulmonary, heart and breath.

And I like the romantic moments people have that are divorced from the need to prove sentiment with money. I'm big on walks on the beach, honest. And doughnuts at midnight can be the most romantic statement ever. I'm lukewarm on the standard gestures of romance -- red roses, diamonds, that sort of thing -- because they're just that: standard gestures, genuflections, luxury for the sake of showiness, not love. Although someone once gave me a box of chocolates after a very intense scene, and it was just the right thing for the moment.

But mostly, I like red and fuzzy and sweet and silly. Everyone can share in that. Here's wishing you all the fuzzy red silliness you desire on this day.

Comments

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Thanks, and backatcha. Lovely post.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Cards and flowers and chocolate, and the fact that you can give them to anyone, even platonic friends.

fwiw, I grew up in a culture where this was very much not the standard assumption, and doing so outside of very rigidly defined social roles was looked at with deep suspicion at best. One of the nicer things about being a grown-up and living somewhere saner is not having to worry about that any more.

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

I whittled down my V-day observances to eating chocolate and giving some to other people.

But you know, it might be fun to make cupcakes with pink icing and a little candy heart on top. I'll consider that for next year.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Cupcakes are my favorite :)

[ginoushka.livejournal.com]

I could (and hopefully will?) kiss you for writing this.

Love2.0, and see you tonight at le reading,
g.

[jennconspiracy.livejournal.com]

very nice post... what I like about Valentine's day is a man who earns the massage I promised him by making me a multi-course vegan Japanese meal and licking my pussy after we're done eating AND does dishes -- I give really good massages. ;)