By Ray Dequina, Courier Opinion Editor
Ahh, Valentine's Day. It is on that day that gifts are exchanged, sweet nothings are whispered, and teenagers try desperately to express their love in its most pure form without having to deal with the consequences of a broken prophylactic.
Beautiful, isn't it?
Just the same as any holiday, Valentine's Day figures in the grand dispute that most holidays worth a damn find themselves embroiled in: the debate over the true meaning of the day. It's like a rite of passage in the fraternity of holidays. Christmas went through it, Thanksgiving went through it, and now it's Valentine's Day's turn. So what kind of sick ritual does poor little Valentine's Day have to go through? Does it have to avoid stepping on anything green on the way to the frat house? Does it have to pick up the upperclassmen's dry cleaning while wearing a nightgown? No, the little plebe gets to endure something much worse: it has to sit and watch while high schoolers try futilely to debate the meaning of Valentine's Day. Personally, I think V-Day over there looks nice in the little black negligee, but that's just me.
Before that, however, a story: so I was sitting in class minding my own business (all my rants start like this) when this group of girls not too far from me was talking about Valentine's Day. Engaged in the very same debate as to its meaning, it seemed that both key sides were well represented. On the one side, you had the girl with too much makeup and not enough clothes on talking about how she and her boyfriend had all these plans that probably culminated in an all-night grope fest in the back of his Honda Civic. On the other hand, you had Emo McDowner talking about how commercialized the day has become and how stupid love is. Gag.
Basically it all boils down to high school kids and their overwhelming ineptitude at grasping the concept of middle ground. While Ms. Debbie-with-a-bad-perm is too stupid to see that her boyfriend is just showering her with gifts in an apparently successful ploy to get into her frilly underpants, the Alternative Rock Princess is probably just reeling from a similarly shallow relationship and has decided to renounce love and its ills FOREVER…that is, until the next guy in
women's jeans and eyeliner comes along.
It's like this folks: I understand that, just like everything else in American society, Valentine's Day has been corrupted and turned into another day when people sink all their money on things they won't ever need. At the same time, though, people embittered by all of this Hallmarking need to get their heads out of the rear ends and quit with all the boycotting nonsense.
If you hate that Valentine's Day has been reduced to boxes of chocolates and singing teddy bears, do something constructive and proactive.
You don't necessarily have to be in a relationship to express your love to someone. It doesn't even have to be Valentine's Day.
Tell your parents, or teachers, or friends how much you love them. The only way you counteract the sickening bastardization of a day dedicated to love is to show love, not bitterness. Otherwise, you're not "taking back the 14th" so much as you're complaining that you've been left out of the loop because you're too bitter to open up a bit. If anything, the boycotting of Valentine's Day does way more to damage the integrity of the day than the mindless drones who buy Hallmark Cards. They may not be getting the true meaning either, but at least their hearts are in the right place—even if their wallets aren't.
And with that, I take my leave and wish you all a belated Happy Valentine's Day. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a little post-Valentine's Day plan of my own to execute. Bobbi Maas, if you are reading this right now, would you mind coming outside? There's something I need to tell you
that I'm really not willing to share with the readers of the Courier.
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