What does “Will You Be My Valentine?” Really Mean?

It is that time of year again. All the Christmas stuff is put away, football is over, television sucks, the groundhog has made predictions and it is too cold to go outside. There are more leftovers than even the Simpsons could eat.

Must be time for some amore.

That special day in the month of winter sponsored by the florist, greeting cars and chocolate industries to show your emotional connection to your significant other. Ain’t love grand…. and expensive?

So to show your true emotionally feeling about someone else, whether it is a spouse you’ve been around for years or that boyfriend/girlfriend/ or whatever the kids figure out these days or a complete stranger (try that one without getting slapped). What says love like something that will make you fat and rot your teeth and vegetation that will wilt and die or some crummy made up statement by a person who lives in Utah re-writing mush that you would never say in person.

 Back in elementary school, as best as I remember, each kid was assigned to make a valentine card from construction paper, white glue, and crayons to present to another in the classroom. It was the start of something big. We were actually being taught how to attract the attention of another person with gifts expressing our (what for it) LOVE!

It seems our society wants us to be with someone else. The natural selection approved by religion to promote reproduction and the continuum of the species.

What did we know? A bunch of kids doing a school project and suddenly there was a kiss on the cheek. That is when it happens. It all starts there. We don’t know what it means or what to do with it but is better than a bruise or a cut or a cold.

We will become addicted to this feeling and for years seek a repeat. We dress a certain way, comb our hair a certain way, hang around with certain people and read all the instructional magazines in hope of attracting another for that kiss on the cheek.

And so ‘that’ day is here again to show your appreciation to another for putting up with you. A special candlelit dinner and soft music and perhaps a glass of wine while gazing into each other’s eyes like teenagers. It is all part of the drill.

So tomorrow I may do something unusual? While the bubbly is flowing and all the lovers renew their bonds, there will be those of us who never got that card in elementary school. No one was ever our valentine.

Stay tuned….