Why Waste Opportunities?

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Gentlemen, be warned. Saint Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. And as with any other year, you will start seeing the constant posts of people raising the topic of how “I’m not into Valentine’s Day, ’cause I’m romantic every day of the year” or how “Valentine’s a commercial holiday created to sell candy." On the other end of the spectrum then you have the guys stopping to buy supermarket flowers  on their way home from work that afternoon. (This is the one day a year that supermarkets are full during the afternoon commute.) And then there are the single people, for whom Valentines is known as “the day before chocolate is at half price.”

I can’t agree with any of these.

Yes, some people are romantic all year round and don’t need a specific day to remind them. But let’s be honest here. If you need to openly state how you are romantic all year round to avoid being a little more romantic one specific day, my bet is you’re not that romantic the rest of the year either. You, my friend, are an apologist.

Valentine's has been commercialized to no end. But it wasn’t created to sell candy. Valentine day falls on the Greco-Roman celebration of Fertility (you needed to "get spring going") and it was during this time that they celebrated the marriage of Zeus and Hera (Month of Gamaleon). Later, this date was given to all Valentinus of Rome, the valiant saints. Since the 13th century, we already have a direct relation between Romantic prose and Valentine’s Day (it takes a Valiant man to prove his love?). So on your excuse of commercialism, I call Bullshit.

What Valentine’s Day give us is an excuse. It’s an excuse to tell the people you care about how important they are. It’s an excuse to treat a friend to lunch. It’s an excuse to risk telling someone how you feel about them. It’s an excuse to remind your partner about all the reason you are with them.

Yes, it’s just an excuse. I don’t know about the rest of you, but the more I look at it, the less it looks like an excuse and the more it looks like an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to do something special for someone special.