You walk into Walmart cringing, anticipating the worst. Step by step the dread grows, and as you pass by the annoyingly cheery greeters you come face to face with the vilest, loudest displays of the year for single people … Valentine’s Day.
Last year, I set out to find the true meaning of Valentine’s Day. Who was St. Valentine, what relevance in Catholicism does Valentine’s Day have, and more. If that’s what you’re looking for, go read last year’s article From Martyr to Marketing. This year, I was determined to find some personal meaning in Valentine’s Day, so I did the obvious: I started dating someone.
Haha, no I didn’t. But the fact that I said that holds some relevance. Do you have to be in a relationship to enjoy Valentine’s Day? The obvious answer would be yes, but with the recent creation of Galentine’s and the hundreds of thousands of elementary school kids handing out tiny store-bought candy cards to all 23 people in their class, I could argue no. After all, what are priests and nuns supposed to do? Hardly anyone remembers the story of St. Valentine anymore, if the legend holds any truth. Valentine’s Day has become more than another Couples Day.
The most obvious change would be the commercial one; because on what other holiday would you see a Lunchables-themed Valentine’s Day gift being sold by the thousands at your local grocery store that starts with the letter W? Not on Christmas. But the real change is the obsession with relationships and dating, especially among teenagers. For example, think about the Lunchables candy. Undoubtedly awful, but shouldn’t a person be grateful for any gift they receive? Maybe not the best analogy, but lately, whether or not you received a gift on Valentine’s Day seems to be more important than whether you liked the gift you got or not. Hear me out: so many people are choosing to go out with or to get into relationships with people they don’t actually like because all they really wanted was to be in a relationship or to say they had a date to a dance or that party. Is it really so scary to show up to that dance alone or to go buy yourself that chocolate box? I can already hear the response to this question: “It’s just not the same!” Going through life relationship by relationship without focusing on yourself for even one second will leave your confidence in the toilet. We can’t keep turning Valentine’s Day into a validation fest. Your self-love is worth much more than the extreme lack of affection that a random girl or guy you see walking down the hall every day will give you. For once, go out this Valentine’s Day and get yourself something, a nice meal, a movie, or that one book you’ve been wanting to read. Better yet, get Father Vance some candy or a card for Valentine’s Day or Ash Wednesday. Priests especially deserve to know how much they are loved. Just don’t get him the Lunchables candies. Burn those.
The Bishop Kelly Newspaper 