Not for love or money.

I'm not sure if any holiday ever was as bastardized as Valentine's Day.

First, it was Lupercalia, with the crazy naked men running through the streets of Rome and slapping the naked women with wolf pelts and we can safely, I think, assume lots of other crazy Roman fertility-related stuff. Then, it was just a feast day for a couple lesser known Catholic Saints. Then Chaucer made it about courtly love. Then, someone decided it was a moneymaker via mass-produced valentine cards. Then, some mobsters were killed.

Nowadays, this is just another item in the consumer calendar. We've cleaned up the cardboard top hats and plastic noisemakers and champagne from New Year's, now we need some foil hearts and chocolate and roses and jewelry and lingerie for our Valentines. And if we're single, we need to couple up. And if we're in a couple, we need to go out of our way to show our partner how much we care, preferably by giving them lots and lots of stuff. What crap!!

I show the people I love that I love them as often as I can, by being as involved in their lives as I possibly can. Sometimes I make a gesture - send a card or buy a little gift or call out of the blue or whatever....and sometimes I just say the words. The point is, I don't limit myself to this one day; I love the people I love every day. Isn't that the way it's supposed to work?

Screw the flower shops. Screw the candy companies. Screw the greeting card manufacturers. Screw all the marketing departments who have bastardized a holiday that was already bastardized to begin with. Screw the culture that thinks love = stuff, and that romance = happy.

I'm rocking it quirkyalone, people.