true love is every day.

[fox]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:  I object to Valentine's Day, but not for the reasons you think.

Those of you who enjoy it, by all means, go right ahead.  Have a great time.  I'm very Unitarian/libertarian (note the lowercase L, please)/laissez-faire that way.  But I wish more of us took the time to wonder if today's chocolates taste better, if today's jewelry sparkles brighter, if today's flowers are more floral and today's declarations of love are more sincere because it happens to be the 14th.

When someone tells me he loves me, I'd like it to be because he can't not tell me -- not because the calendar told him he'd better.

Comments

[thyesc.livejournal.com]

free overpriced dinner from the one you love? :-)

And I agree. The only bonus of this night - after being in a relationship for 3.5 years - is that it is a good excuse to get all nicely dressed and spend money on a very nice dinner (rather than the usual take-out and a bottle of moderately priced wine) and not feel guilty that you are spending that much money...it's Valentine's Day...it comes once a year...

I'm Chad, therefore I rationalize.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

How free is something paid for by the one you love, though, when most of your assets are in common?

;-)

[thyesc.livejournal.com]

Fah. we still each have personal bank accounts...and whose side are you on? do not make me have to rationalize after a bottle of wine and some Grand Marnier...that's too difficult :-)

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Whose side? The equal marriage rights side, of course, which means all y'all are entitled to the same community property we breeders get when we pair off.

If that's what you want, that is. If you don't, then hey, by all means, keep separate bank accounts. I'm just saying. It's not better because it's today. It's the opposite of better because it's today. :-)

[thyesc.livejournal.com]

No, the side of the people who easily rationalize dinners that aren't truly free. Fah, stop making this political. I'm making this about filet mignon and a delicious chocolate dessert.

And we have joint AND personal...because good lord, there is only so much you need to share. If I want to spend some money on a cheesy romance novel, I don't need anyone asking me what I bought at Barnes and Noble. Shame is not something I wear well. Ok, it is, but it's kinda tight and makes me look s(h)allow.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Oh, you don't want to get me started on free. And how "free with purchase" is just a LIE. And how I really struggle with the impulse, which I get from my mother, to correct from "free" to "included" or "for no additional charge." (Note to anyone reading whom I have so corrected: think of all the times you have heard me do this. Reflect that I really do struggle and manage to control it most of the time. Now imagine what it's like to be me.)

Right. No politics. Hooray, filet mignon. Yum. (Also, re: s[h]allow: I think I adore you.)

[thyesc.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, freedom isn't free or some such bullshit saying. It is, however, included with the price of admission. So I know what you are saying about "free" versus "included" or "for no additional charge."

And I thought you would enjoy that (h) :-)

[wordplay.livejournal.com]

I think this post is a near perfect demonstration of the truism that every cynic is just another frustrated romantic.

Next you'll be telling me that tiny little heart sprinkles don't belong at the Amish Market! Sheesh!

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

The hearts, I could get behind. But those colors didn't exist in nature. :-)

I don't know about every cynic; but w/r/t me, it's hardly a new observation. Actually, as ellen_fremedon and I have observed, what I really am is a contrarian. Next to an ordinary, basically happy, optimistic person, I look like an embittered cynic. Next to ellen_fremedon, I look like a starry-eyed idealist. And I don't think I'm a fixed point; I shift to accommodate, right, so that even what I have just called contrarianism, when Ellen calls it contrarianism, I prefer to call it "seeking balance".

[thyesc.livejournal.com]

and I say unto your userpic: "But I want to go to La Mancha"

and

"Vacancy here, a bed at the Ritz Men Only. A little white ship to sail the dangerous night in..."

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

OMFG NOSTALGIA. (Twelve years, Chad. TWELVE.)

(AND A HALF.)

[thyesc.livejournal.com]

I know, like right. And the fact that I still remember those lines, and the goldenrod polyester shirt, says something.

Oh, I still have the vacancy sign. It's at my parents house, but I still have that.

Block 10 on the Camino Real.

[wordplay.livejournal.com]

I can agree with this characterization.

For my own part, I think my approach to Valentine's Day is more pragmatic and self-interested. Afa I'm concerned, it's not a day for celebrating the people you love, it's a day for celebrating chocolate and flowers and pink and red things and the entire stable of traditionally romantic gestures. Those things are fun and probably worth celebrating, but I'm not altogether sure they have much at all to do with actual Love of the kind I am such a fan of. Doesn't mean the cupcakes aren't fun to bake, eh? :D

(AND OMG CREAM CHEESE ICING! How can you be cynical about a holiday that pretty much REQUIRES IT for the appropriate color scheme?! OK, that was a rhetorical question - I know exactly how easy it is. :D)

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

...Valentine's Day?

Oh, you mean Chocolate Sale Eve!

[elance.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. Valentines Day is an over-marketed waste of money, and I think most people participate in it out of a sense of guilty obligation. I don't want anyone, ever, telling me they love me, buying me presents, or doing things for me, out of guilty obligation.

John and I very happily ignore the day entirely.