Love is in the Air

Valentine's Day strikes me as the "make or break" day of all bad relationships. By bad relationships, I don't mean wife-beaters and abusers, or normally decent relationships going through a rough patch. By bad relationships I mean the legions of naive souls who got married because it was "the right time" or "the thing to do". Who married someone they had nothing in common with because that person matched their 23 year-old idea of what perfect was (or even worse, their parents' ideas of what perfect was). I mean those of you who share your lives with someone to whom you have little to say, someone with whom you have no desire to spend a concentrated amount of time alone. However, since you've got 2 kids, a mortgage and no imagination of a life that could be better, you go out for dinner and have sex on a few occasions throughout the year to prove to each other - and mostly to everyone else - that you are the perfect couple.

All year, he's been cheating on you with whoever will let him while you've been developing an addiction to online gambling and vicodin. But today is Valentine's day. So tonight, you'll don your La Senza/La Perla lingerie (depending upon your income bracket) and he'll present you with jewellery/flowers/a car (depending upon your income bracket) and you can pretend that everything is perfect.

Aah, Valentine's Day - it's so romantic!

I say out with six-dollar cards and foil-wrapped chocolate hearts. Out with over-priced long-stemmed roses that won't last out the week. Out with fighting for reservations or rushing through desert so you can be done on time for the second seating. Out with the heart-covered lingerie and the laced-covered thong (ah, that's a relief!). Tell your partner you love them every day you are with him or her. And if you find that hard to do, maybe you should find someone who makes you want to say it.