On this glorious holiday, when we celebrate all that we love, I want to bring the mood down a little and get serious for once. I may joke about the flowers and chocolates, but Valentine’s Day is a very important holiday that should be celebrated with all the honor and respect that Mr. Hallmark intended when he came up with it in his marketing boardroom. Oh wait, that was Sweetest Day – scratch that last part.
It’s funny, but Valentine’s Day always makes me think of my grandfather, because he had a charming way of speaking his mind and pointing out what was most important in life. Every Valentine’s Day, he would send me a little card with a hand-written note – just a sentence or two – that would bring a smile to my face and make me feel like the most special girl in the world. I kept them all in a little satin covered box that once contained an Easter bonnet he bought my grandmother when he was courting her.
All of the cards would begin with, “Dear Jenny, always remember this:” Some of the notes that stuck with me are:

Enjoy life’s sweet surprises.

Inspire the life of a child.

Sleep late, dream more.

If I could, I’d bathe in chocolate.
Wait a minute – okay, so maybe my grandfather didn’t really write these. Maybe instead of hand-written notes, these might be the wrappers from the bag of dark chocolate Dove Promises I just ate. And maybe instead of a satin covered hat box, I just dug them out of the trash.
But the sentiment is still the same.
My point – if I must have one – is this: it is important to recognize and honor the ones we love, whether it is triggered by some greeting card holiday, or by the fabricated memory of a relative. Too often, we take our loved ones for granted, and forget to tell them how we feel. So with that in mind, I’m going to do us all an enormous favor by telling everyone we love that we love them, en masse, right here and right now:
Husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, parents, brothers, sisters, children, second cousins, friends, co-workers, mail carriers, teachers, bus drivers – we all love you. We just wanted you to know that we love you a lot, even though sometimes we don’t say it enough. I mean, we love you so deeply that sometimes we just get a little crazy, you know? It’s like, we love you so much that we don’t want anyone else to love you. Not the way that we love you.
So I guess what we’re trying to say is… please come back to us. Please? We promise we won’t do those things that drove you away in the first place. We told you that we’re getting help for that, so why won’t you believe us? You know, we would love you a lot more if you weren’t such a frickin’ nag. No wait, we didn’t mean that. Just please say you’ll take us back. We know you love us, too. Oh god, we love you so much.
Happy Valentine’s Day!

Filed under: General on February 14th, 2005