On love, and art

Personally, I am a huge fan of Valentines Day. It may even be one of my favorite holidays… a viewpoint that elicits various criticisms. Some find that Valentines day is too commercialized, just an excuse for the sale of Hallmark cards (sure, I agree…), but most rest their displeasure in it being a “couples” holiday and, well, they just happen to find themselves single. I’d be lying if I professed not to understand this criticism either. Yes! I want to be able to say ‘I love you’, in person, to my valentine. Of course! I see happy couples walking down the street and wish I could slip my hand into (that) someone else’s as well. Truthfully though, I wish this on most days of the year.

In any case, I like Valentines Day for at least one very simple reason: I love making Valentines cards. A leftover favorite from my elementary school days, it seems there’s just something special about cutting hearts out of red construction paper. I love running down to the corner store to buy paper, ribbons, and stickers. I love heading home, with a big grin on my face, to spend the next couple hours covering the room and myself in glitter, glue, and infuriatingly small pieces of paper. I love carefully designing a unique card for each one of my loved ones and scribbling cryptic notes on the back. Quite frankly, it’s one of the most important creative functions of my year.

And when I’m making those cards and thinking about the smiles that will accompany their receipt, it doesn’t matter to me in the slightest that on the actual day I’ll find myself reading various works of philosophy while listening to the man at the next table sing along to the vaguely romantic music playing in my favorite neighborhood café (Wilson Philips, anyone?). In fact, the option of curling up with my valentine being off the table for now, there is hardly any place I’d rather be.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!