Romance, passion, love, and the excitement of developing a relationship with someone who shares your values and interests are things I profoundly appreciate in life, so why do I hate Valentine's Day so much?
I love my wife. We're happily married and I wouldn't trade what we have for all the money in the world--or all the tea in China (and I freaking love tea.)
If I'm not a bitter, depressed and lonely man singing the lovesick blues, full of hatred and resentment, then what fathomable right do I have to despise the holiday of love?
Why Do I Hate Valentine's Day?
My deep and mysterious appreciation for romance, passion, spontaneity, love and adventure is precisely why I hate Valentine's Day, the holiday that mocks and cheapens all of those priceless things.
Buying or crafting your wife or girlfriend (or husband or boyfriend) something thoughtful like flowers, a card, a gift, a trip, an outing or an adventure is deeply special and meaningful.
Receiving gifts is one of the five love languages, along with acts of service, physical touch, words of affirmation and quality time. These are important things.
Receiving gifts, if it's one of the strongest ways you communicate and receive love, should not be taken lightly by your partner.
As such, it is offensive, cheap, vile and disgusting to take something so special like giving a thoughtful gift to someone you love and creating a holiday that forces you to do so as a societal obligation.
Big corporations prey upon the vulnerability of people and have created a billion-dollar industry out of it. But they're responding to a societal norm.
We're not against businesses making money on Valentine's Day, some businesses like florists and chocolatiers rely on it. Hell, we have Valentine's Day shirts on our website you can buy right now.
(We have anti-Valentine's Day shirts too. My favorite!)
We have Valentine's Day shirts for people who love Valentine's Day because we want to serve our customers. But I can still say that it's a shame that the Valentine's Day gift obligation exists at all.
Sharing gifts, spending quality time, making love etc. should be experiences of realness and value, not something that was prompted by the Hallmark corporation.
Being obligated to buy something to give to someone on a certain day as a token of your love and affection is criminally insane and should be highly reconsidered by our society.
Why not surprise your wife or girlfriend and buy her flowers on a random day? I've done it, and I know many men who have done it, too. Believe me, it's more special. The element of surprise can throw kerosene on the flames of your passion.
My wife surprises me with gifts, songs, cards, notes, and all sorts of fun stuff. I love that. That's a real demonstration of love when somebody does something for you or thinks about you without being told to.
And that's why Valentine's Day sucks and I hate it; because it's telling you what to do with the most intimate things you value in life.
Screw Valentine's Day!
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