Robert Manners

Hooray for Love?

I am sick to death of Valentine's Day. There, I said it. I feel better. I'm trying not to be bitter, trying not to project my own romantic disappointments on the world at large, trying to present a calm and rational example of enlightened celibacy to the world, but it's really hard to do with all this free-floating V-Day expectation/anxiety. I mean, everything is red. It's very nerve-wracking.



What's worse is that I find myself wearing red a lot lately. I'm wearing red right now, even. I love the color red, I love almost every conceivable shade of red...the background of this here website is one of the prettiest, richest shades of red I've ever seen (which is why I chose it). But for some reason all the red in the newspaper ads and the tv ads and the magazine ads and the shop-windows and the restaurant counters and the deli cases is getting to me. Enough already!



So here's a little dilemma: I don't like Valentine's Day, I don't approve of Valentine's Day, and I don't intend to celebrate Valentine's Day. But everyone around me does like, approve, and celebrate Valentine's Day. So what do I do? Should I buy heart-shaped boxes of chocolate for my coworkers? Should I get something for the Grandmother? Should I send cards to my friends? Or should I take the high road and ignore it all? Should I refuse Valentine's Day gifts? One must if one has no intention of reciprocating. Is a puzzlement!



Oh, I know! I'll send out Chinese New Year's cards and gifts! Instead of Valentine's Day crap! What a fabulous solution! In Asia, red is the color of celebration (which makes one think about Communism in a rather different light) rather than of passion, as it is in Europe. And since I'm one-quarter Chinese, I can celebrate my Asian heritage! Instead of my three-eighths Irish heritage...which comes next month. Chinese New Year instead of Valentine's Day: I could get behind that.



So Gung Hay Fat Choy, darlings! Take your Catholic saint and your Hallmark-plotted Consumption Conspiracy and shove them!



I'm free!



I'm babbling.



I think I'd better go to bed now.



Good night, Moon!