I wouldn't let it lie

Those of you who know me will not be surprised by the subject of today's entry, given the date. I write this in full acknowledgement of the fact that plenty of people make their choices on this with open eyes and informed minds, but plenty don't, and this is, in any case, my own feelings on the matter, so yah boo sucks.

Today is, of course, that most ignoble of days, St bloody Valentine's day. A day that should be marked down in infamy as the product of the avarice and complete lack of scruples about preying on people's emotional insecurities of the businesses which stand to profit from it. I know that it could be argued that by refusing so vehemently to mark the day at all, I assign an importance to it just as everybody else does, but my view on it is that, if you want to make any kind of meaningful gesture to your loved one, this is absolutely the last possible day of the year you should do so, unless it happens to also be your anniversary or their birthday. (Most unfortunate for you, if that's the case).

As I've always argued, if you truly care about somebody, if you truly want to make some kind of show of your feelings for them, surely it's better to do so when you think of it, when it's come only at your own instigation and because you just wanted to, not because you've been absolutely surrounded by constant advertising reminders, pink hearts, balloons, fluffy animals and the bloody like. Anything done on the same day everybody else does and only because that's when you're supposed to surely loses any genuine significance whatsoever, and just becomes the worst kind of tokenism, stripped of all its real meaning.

And if proof were needed of the real motivations behind this 'celebration', it's all over the place. A few minutes' searching on the web will bring up the research done by a local paper in Somerset as to the prices of a typical gift before and after V-Day. I quote:

"Ringing around florists on Monday, we were told customers would have to pay, on average, £40.38 for a bouquet of 12 red roses. But, when ordering to collect for this Monday, Valentine’s Day, they were told to stump up, on average, £57.66 for the flowers. The highest increase was at Worle Florists in High Street where 12 roses would cost 80% more on Monday than they do this week."

No further questions, m'lud. Eighty fucking per cent! They may as well have named it "Rip Off Desperate Blokes Who Don't Want To Be In Trouble With Their Girlfriend If She's The Only One Without Flowers" day. So, on any day in, for example, October, you get more meaning in your gift for a shitload less money. Or any of the other 364 days available to you, in fact.

So reject it. Ignore it. Don't satisfy the demands of Mammon for such a vacuous exercise in tasteless, meaningless, trite, pointless folly. Do something that means something on some other day.