Another example of smart consumerism
So Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and this is a great chance to further practice smart decisive consumerism on your part. Have you ever asked yourself why you spend xx on a gift for your loved one on this holiday? If you’ve really thought of it, the answer is that we have all been conditioned to this by the media and card companies, candy companies, flower companies, etc. There are many many ways to show someone you love them that doesn’t involve going to a store and buying something that says “I love you” on it. This article talks about this very subject and gives a few ideas of ways to say “I love you” that might actually be more helpful for your loved one than a stuffed bear or calorie-filled candy.
I personally feel that the way you show someone how much you love them is to show how well you know them and do something in that vein. Let’s say you don’t really cook, but your loved one does (and more importantly has friends that do as well). Instead of cooking a meal yourself (and risking the fallout from it), have one of her friends cook a meal for you that you and they would know your loved one loves. In return, offer to purchase a gift certificate for this person to someplace they really like (if you want to spend money) or offer to do their lawn work for a month, etc. If you don’t mind spending money, but want to get something your loved one would really like, think about their interests. One year, I took Rob to Fantasy of Flight and purchased a Valentine Special Bi-plane ride. He totally LOVED it! And it wasn’t something useless that would sit around the house looking dated (like a stuffed bear that says “I love you”).
Basically, throughout the millennia, February was always a slow shopping month. Then, because a couple of early Christian martyrs (both named Valentine?) might have died for love, a holiday emerged.
I’m not making this up. I found the following stories on Wikipedia and in a U.S. Census Bureau release:
- A priest secretly married lovers in defiance of a Roman emperor’s decree and supposedly was executed for it.
- Another man, as legend has it, was rejected by his mistress, and — you’ll like this — he carved out his own heart and gave it to her. Yech.
Somehow, about 1,700 years later, we’re stuck spending gobs of money on predetermined displays of “romance.”
