I'd love to sit here and tell you I think Valentine's Day is one of my favorite days. I'd love to go on and on about how much fun I have, the flowers I send, the cards I receive, the rich reds and pinks flooding every aspect of the campus as I walk from class to class, and the smiles on everyone's faces. Nope, sorry.

I loathe Valentine's Day for two main reasons. The larger of the two is my seemingly never-ending singleness. I could write another article about this, about how I sit in my room and listen to August and Everything After over and over on that cold day, how I stare at the ceiling and write incessantly in my journals, the pen pressing through twenty sheets of paper to record failed attempts at sharing myself.

Yet, in keeping with your interest in this article, I won't bother.

The more pertinent reason I don't like Valentine's Day is its commercial value. You honestly can't deny this. This isn't to say every holiday hasn't been whored to death; they have. Valentine's Day is a special case. It is intended to be a celebration of love and, more in particular, romantic love that creates families and bonds between people. Well, I don't think that sentiment is completely gone.it's just not the dominant idea of the day anymore.

At least two weeks before February 14, the television, the radio, and the weekly magazines are choked with advertisements for before-Valentine's Day sales, Valentine's Day sales, and after-Valentine's Day sales for carpets, refrigerators, kitchen utensils, vacuum cleaner bags, and poorly-built cars. And if you look at these ads you'll see the man and the woman (never the woman and the woman or the man and the man or the girl and the boy) indulging in massive amounts of organic aphrodisiacs while using these trinkets. It's bad enough we have to put up with Herbal Essences commercials year-round. What's this trash for? It's so someone can make money and keep it for private profit.

Gosh Jeff, did you think of that one all on your own?

On Valentine's Day, though? Isn't that kind of gross?

Here would be a good place to quote my dear friend Stephanie's AOL profile:

You know, some people say that Valentine's Day is a holiday created by the greeting card companies in order to manufacture in us a desire to buy useless amounts of sentimental crap in order to further their own profits. AND, in our society, it seems as if those who do not have a "valentine" are made to feel "less-than," adequate in some ways because there is no one to dote on them.

I'll buy that. I feel pretty rotten eating in Dalton by myself during that silly Valentine theme dinner they host. But read on:

Well, do you know what I think? I think that it is a day of hope and love, and, if more people believed in love, then the world would be better. So, screw all that socioeconomic bulls***, and have a Happy Valentine's Day!!

The socioeconomic stuff is indeed crap. It's the truth, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Serious people don't make very good consumers. Also, to further Stephanie's statement, shouldn't every day be one of hope and love? I mean, yeah, it's great to want what you have and take what you're given on Valentine's Day, but why not have such an attitude all throughout the year? That's even better! She's infallibly right about one thing: if more people believed in love, the world would be better. If more people weren't consumed by petty differences we wouldn't have the problems we have now. If we considered ourselves citizens of Earth and not just citizens of the United States, the world would be better.

As I progress through these early morning hours of my day I see that the romance lack isn't entirely what has soured me to Valentine's Day, it's the lack of everything else, the lack in every day where we curse at the driver going the speed limit and butt in front of people in line and shut off those who don't share our viewpoints, no matter how open we'd like to envision ourselves. We can be a really stupid species of animal. Yes, look at our shiny banks and monolithic cathedrals, but also look at our wars-all our stained, little toys scattered everywhere and we can't bring ourselves to clean up. To see this on Valentine's Day, the day where pure romance is shoved in the faces of millions, further pains me, and, as I write this article, I realize maybe this outweighs my own personal concerns.

This year a few of my also-single friends and I are going to go out to a nice dinner and exchange sob stories. There will be lots of holding hands and shoulders serving as pillows. Maybe we'll find some hope in our hopelessness, and the next few Valentine's Days won't be so rough on us. Maybe we can share such hope with others.

Whoops, am I writing about myself again?

Name: Jeff
Comments:
Hey Jenny, my number is 831... :-D

Name: jenny
Comments:
I agree, Valentines day is entirerly too commercialized. But what I hate is when single people mope about complaining they do not have a significant other. Go out with a friend or something instead of wasting your time complaining all the time! Personally, I am a beautiful young woman of 19 who loves getting dozens of roses on Valentines Day!

Name: Dave
Comments:
I agree with Jeff. What's with all the crap comments. If it's not constructive, why bother.

Name: jeff
Comments:
I'll welcome constructive criticism, but infantile comments such as the one below don't belong here. Nota bene: this is a stream-of-consciousness article. It's supposed to sound rambling. If you think you could do a better job, please join us.

Comments:
blah blah blah. what a waste of code.