Barbara Finlinson, Staff Writer @bubblestweets
Valentine’s Day is an overly-commercialized, greeting card company supporting, candy-consuming, fresh-flower murdering, mostly-disappointing day when people are pressured in to telling their significant other they love them. Right? Wrong.
Even when taking the time to honor and express your affection is forced by culture and TV commercials about diamonds and flower delivery services, I’m ok with big business making a profit in the name of love because it’s a worthy cause.
Valentine’s Day has the potential to make or break a steady relationship, but what about those that are married? When asked, many married people say they don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. What? Why not? Your spouse is the one you promised you would spend your life with. You promised to love, honor and cherish as long as you both shall live. So, why not cherish them on Valentine’s Day?
You are busy. Okay, that’s fair. Married people are busy and spend most of their time just busily rushing past each other being “busy”. I get it. I am married. As married people, we are often busy going to work, paying bills, cleaning the house, going to school, having children, making dinner, changing diapers, checking Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. We do anything but tell our spouse we love them because we assume they already know.
In fact, we are so busy, we are told by popular relationship gurus and advice columnists to “schedule” time for our spouse. That’s romantic. Because nothing says “I love you“ like getting this text message: “Hey honey, I penciled you in today between scrubbing the toilets at 4 and taking out the trash at 6.” Add a kissy-face emoticon and it’s on. Maybe not.
Let’s face it, most days our priorities are seriously screwed up and that is precisely why Valentine’s Day is a good idea. Let’s take one day out of 365 to put our spouse first, wear perfume, eat chocolate, smell roses, and remember why you fell in love. For the most part, marriage is average, routine and sometimes mundane. But love is a funny thing that can change the average and mundane into something special. It makes waking up to your spouse’s bedhead and morning breath fabulous. It makes falling into the toilet in the middle of the night because your spouse didn’t put the seat down awesome. It makes a bad case of cellulite and stretch marks beautiful. It makes toothpaste in the sink charming and it makes love handles sexy as hell. That’s what love is, and you cannot deny it’s worth a day of celebration. Happy Valentine’s Day.
