It’s bad enough that this time of the year, we are usually inundated with people, especially men claiming to not celebrate Valentine’s Day because “I can show you love and spoil you any other day, why is the 14th of February special?”.
The gag to this is that on any other day, they actually do not spoil or loudly express that love. To sound smart, they even say that they consider this day as a commercial stunt to get them to spend thousands of monies for an ‘unnecessary’ course.
My thing is, if you’re not going to observe an international day of love, then you might as well not observe Christmas and any other titled day. Be consistent in your idealism like the Jehovah’s Witnesses because in all these days’ essence is a packaged set of rituals or practices, whether commercial or not, and if you unsubscribe to one, unsubscribe to all.
Valentine’s Day originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine and through later folk traditions, it has also become a significant cultural, religious and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world.
Given that you are romantically involved with someone, it only makes sense to buy a rose or two or even a hundred for the said person. A dinner at their favourite restaurant also suffices but the main reason behind the nonchalant behaviour around this day is usually because of the other person in the relationship who’s bold enough to express their lack of interest.
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While this remains a touch-and-go situation for some people, many other discourses around the day and its celebration have emerged.
This year, in particular, tongues are wagging over whether or not people are allowed to receive Valentine’s gifts from their partners at their places of work.
The sentiment against this gesture is dominant amongst the singletons because they consider it a trigger gesture but to be fair, whose fault is it that you are single?
If being single is a decision that you proudly made for yourself, there is absolutely no reason to victimise other people for making the decision to be in romantic relationships.
On any other day, there is no problem with office deliveries but because Martha was now dumped last week, all the employees in the company must suffer.
Not only is this selfish but it demonstrates a lack of emotional intelligence. This is in spite of the fact that the big bouquet of flowers would catch more attention on this day than any other day and probably distract some nosy heads from their work for a couple of minutes and even solicit unnecessary questioning.
This day doesn’t need to be reason for singletons to fight lovers, just soak yourself in love and spread it as much as possible and leave each to their own status.
As cliché as it may sound, love really is a beautiful thing. Be it in romantic or platonic relationships. The sooner we are as loud about the platonic one as we are with the romantic one, the more love we’ll find ourselves spreading because to be honest, that’s the one that’s proven to last longer and hold more substance especially because the dating pool is not just murky, but it has been flooded with ridiculously wrong reasons for its course.
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I, for one, received a long, expressive Valentine’s Day message from my guy best friend of over a decade. His name is also historically notorious for romance and for as long as I can remember, he has religiously done something similar for Valentine’s, Mother’s Day (for my mother), my birthday and Women’s Day. My stepfather alike, he buys me something and calls me to remind me that he loves me on this day. This takes away nothing from all the other days where they’ve loudly loved me.
Because of this standard, I could never take lousy reasons from a romantic partner for not celebrating Valentine’s Day.
Affirmation may be a long awkward shot because I never really know how to react but if I've cooked for you or even gotten you anything, you know where you stand.
Since the dating streets are rough though, I have gone from being ghosted around this time of the year because my birthday is two weeks away from Valentine’s Day because of the pressure they induce on themselves, to being the one to ghost, just to avoid hearing lousy excuses.
It works. I’m saving them from the sin of lies and deceit.
