BY JACK GODBEY

Community columnist

It’s that time of the year again. Yes, Valentine’s Day weekend is here. The overpriced candy, flowers and cards are in high demand. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a relationship or if you’re single, the one true denominator is that the stores want your money. 

Many of the friends that I have spoken too seem to feel that Valentine’s Day is designed specifically to put intense pressure on them to do, plan, or buy something special.  While I am not a fan of the commercialism of the holiday, we should remember that a day to celebrate love can’t be all bad. If there’s one thing the world needs more of it would be love.  

What started out as a day to honor the Catholic priest St. Valentine for secretly marrying Romans when the government forbid him to do so, has over time turned into people everywhere being mugged by the greeting card and chocolate industries by guilting you into spending too much money in order to stay out of the dog house with your spouse.

However, there’s no need to fall into the commercial swindle of buying expensive chocolate and flowers. Actions speak louder than chocolate. If you’re anything like me, the chocolate would have been long gone before sundown on the 14th and the flowers will wilt and die in a week or so and you’re left with nothing.

I wanted to try something different and I found it when I stopped by the doctors office a few days back for a checkup. While waiting  to be seen, I read every Popular Mechanics magazine I could find and against my better judgement, I gave in and picked up a Cosmopolitan magazine and began thumbing through it. 

I read an article from a self-proclaimed expert about love who said if you could strip down to your underwear and sit down to dinner then it would show your partner how comfortable you are with them as you’re in your most vulnerable position.

I decided that I would try it out and that evening at supper. Before we ate I did exactly as the article asked. I stripped down to my boxers and then sat down at the table to eat. My wife never batted an eye and I feel like it went well, but the folks at McDonald’s didn’t seem to appreciate it too much and asked me not to return.

I was talking to one of my single friends who was depressed at being alone on Valentine’s Day who said all he had was a terrible job, a run-down house and a bunch of aches and pains and was upset because he didn’t have a girlfriend. I informed him that this was all about perspective and how you looked at it.

His terrible job is an unemployed person’s dream. The run down house he lives in is the envy of every homeless person living on the street. His mild aches and pains are the envy of those who are victims of sickness and disease. 

If you’re single then remember to have perspective. You can celebrate because you can sit in your pajamas all weekend and watch reruns of The Brady Bunch without anyone fussing at you to clean out the gutters. If it’s that important to you to eat overpriced chocolates, then by all means buy them for yourself. You cannot love someone else until you first learn to love yourself anyway. 

 

Jack Godbey is a resident of Danville and is a published author. He can be reached at wizardman66@live.com