February 14, 2023 Happy Valentine’s Day

Love is in the air. 

Well, something is in the air anyway. Love is in my heart. Or is it in my head? No matter, it is there somewhere. My love for my wife is definite but without definition. It is also infinite.

Today is Valentine’s Day. A day used by card makers and flower shops everywhere as a brilliant marketing tool. Some people might call me cynical, but I think I am more of a realist. Ah, yes, being a realist is not very romantic, is it? But, of course, I am a romantic person; I don’t like the idea that it has to be focused on one day of the week.

Ok, I admit it. I forgot to get my sweetheart a Valentine’s Day card. Usually, that wouldn’t be a big deal. I, like millions of other (mostly) men in the world, would rush out and buy a lovely card espousing how much I love my wife. I would spend around ten bucks on said card and it would get read once, then put away with all our other cards like birthdays and Christmas. Never to be read again until someone dies or something. Yes, how very romantic of me. The thing is, I love my wife with all my heart. I don’t really need a specific day to express it. I still wish I’d gone out and bought her a card before I left town for the mountain. I will see if she is ok waiting until we return to the real world to celebrate our love, instead of sharing a day with everyone else. Then, we can make a day all our own. Our very special un-Valentines day. It will be a protest against the commercialism of February 14. We can do February 17.

Or we can try to make every day special.

The best day of my life continues to be November 15, 2014. The day my wife and I were married on the mountain. It was the first day of the rest of my life. 

And I don’t regret it for a minute.

I do regret forgetting to get a Valentine’s card for my sweetie. I hope she forgot as well. The regret I feel is part of the problem with Valentine’s day. There is too much pressure to get it right. It is also terribly unfair to everyone single in the world. 

Back in the days of Rome, when they first came up with the concept of Valentine’s day, it was more about marrying people when forbidden and some people being executed for it than buying cards and flowers.

Then along came Geoffrey Chaucer, one of England’s great poets. He is the one that started modern society on this path of making Valentines what it is today. So I’ll blame him for me forgetting the card.

So Happy Valentine’s day to everyone, everywhere. Single, married, divorce,d or celibate, I hope you have an awesome day.

Honey just got out of bed; time to make her breakfast and make a great day on the slopes. Without a ten-dollar card.