Okay, listen.
My confession is this: I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day.
I think that the coolest thing that I ever did on Valentine’s Day was attend a Deicide show at Harpo’s, and since then I seem to have personally retired the holiday…
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t believe in love. Far from it; I love Love. It’s magical, powerful, (should be) unconditional, it conquers all.
I’m more of the belief that love should be celebrated on all days. I adore “just because” gifts and displays of affection, random day dates, and my favorite, “today ends in ‘y’ so I did this special thing for you”.
I know. You would think that me being a Libra, I would naturally be one of those people that get super extra pumped about Valentine’s Day. Not so much.
Though I do appreciate that other people love it, and to each their own. If making a fuss over your significant other on a nationally decreed day about love is your thing, then by all means do it. Love is fabulous. It’s the best!
I think that my favorite thing about yesterday was how many friends I saw posting about how important the love of friendship is. Valentine’s Day is not just about couples; all love can be celebrated on February 14th.
I went and hung out with my sister and a friend of ours last night. We had dinner and MST3K’d the heck out of one of those Haunted reality shows with the reenactments. It was great.
Everyone deserves to feel special and loved.
Why not set aside a day specifically for this? I hope that there weren’t too many people out there that felt down because they weren’t with someone for Valentine’s Day. If you did, then maybe consider taking the opportunity today to reach out to a friend and let them know how amazing they are. Take advantage of today’s sales on anatomically incorrect heart shaped candy! Rejoice!
And, listen: Valentine’s Day wasn’t always about the professing of love and exchanging of romantic sentiments. Until Chaucer and Shakespeare stepped in, the day itself was kind of a downer.
(I looked up the history behind the celebration and made notes, but am rethinking my original plan of including it. I mean, I’m writing a blog and not an essay here, right? However, if you do want some random historical tidbits, the websites of NPR, History, and the Smithsonian have some excellent articles on the subject. Knowledge is power, friends!)
I will tell you this: the sainted name “Valentine” is a derivative of the Latin word “Valentinus”, which means worthy, strong, or powerful.
I thought that was interesting. It also explains why there were multiple St. Valentines, which muddies the historical waters and makes it less accurate to pinpoint precisely which saint we are celebrating. (Though historically speaking, none of them had anything to do with romantic love.)
However you celebrate or choose to not celebrate, I hope that you had a wonderful day yesterday. I hope that your today is likewise fantastic.
Sending out all of the warm and fuzzy feelings, simply because I can.
Because today ends in “y”.
Thanks for reading.
-Jessica, your Media Specialist