The One with the Overrated Valentines

Ever wonder why every Valentine's Day is peppered with hearts and soft, sweet songs, with red petals everywhere and yup, cupids? 

Statue of cupid, thinking about who to shoot next. 

St. Valentine (yup, the guy that Valentines's Day was named after) was actually a Roman Priest. He's not some cupid with a bow, ready to shoot you at a chance. He's actually someone that performed weddings for Christians at the time that Claudius II (Claudius the Goth) was in power. Since aiding Christians were illegal and punishable by imprisonment, soldiers took Valentinus. He was asked to renounce his faith and he refused. He was beheaded for his faith and martyred in 262 AD. He became the Patron Saint of "affianced couples, bee keepers, engaged couples, epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, plague, travellers, young people,so amazingly, even epileptics and gals with fainting spells ought to be celebrating.

Oh dear San Valentinus! 

The amazing thing about it is people are cashing in on it. Hallmark with the expensive eCards with customizable music, flower shops which send you dozens of emails days before the day itself, restaurants, heck even condom companies. Is it me or have we lost our feel for actually celebrating love and have settled with marketing schemes and an all-too-powerful media inception of what Valentine's should be?

Images like this make you think that it's the perfect Vday date - sunset, by the beach, walking hand-in-hand... 

Red roses - passion, desire, love - Uhm, not really. Just says your guy has the "affordances" to purchase an uber expensive bouquet. 

Amazingly, as someone who used to play for the other side (yes, I once celebrated media Vday too!), I always thought it was always on 'roids or something. I can't enter one store without seeing heart balloons or rose-candies and chocolates are at an all-time high! Scallops are at their most expensive and yes, even Rockafeller oysters (which I can eat everyday!) become exotic aphrodisiacs around February. TV commercials are sexier and people tend to wear more make-up around this month. I would roam around some clothing boutiques and red is back, while the LBD (little black dress) is glorified as the "ultimate date dress" by Cosmo, Preview and all those other magazines women like me tend to subscribe to. Now, it's just plain too much. 

Sexy black dress! Bam!

Not to mention that there are probably 20 or so people on my Facebook list that update their status almost hourly with how alone and how eff*d-up their Valentine's Day will, should or is. Did I mention 20? Let's go for 30. It seems like singledom is doomed whenever it's VDay, and I just want to remind everyone that it's not  about being with someone, it's about finding love. And no, love isn't simply what you do under the sheets with some guy (or gal), it's a feeling, a commitment. So you can love your family, your friends, your God, your iPod or what have you. 

Sometimes, love can be a vision of the future. It doesn't have to be with someone. 

There could be a million things that you can do for yourself, with or without anyone beside you. Sometimes, it's even easier to find things to "fall in love with" when you're not hung up on someone.

Also, think of Valentinus (I know, I know, I'm not Catholic and I shouldn't talk about Saints, but hey...), that saint was beatified (read: martyred) for one reason - he died for the belief that an afterlife is better than renouncing his faith. So in essence, he died for faith, not for love. And if you really think about it, VDay should be all about faith - faith in yourself, faith in mankind, faith that life only gets better (with or without anyone).

No photographers were harmed intellectually during the making of this post. All pictures were obtained legally from Stock Xchng. 

My acknowledgement to a good friend, who thinks Vday is overrated but doesn't bitch about it, runs marathons and likes hot chicks. (PM me if you're a lady and you're hot, I'll have him call you.) There's about 10 minutes left til VDay is over. Lolz!