Valentine’s Day

I know that Valentine’s Day is ultra commercial.  And yes, I know it’s all about marketing.  That was more than apparent as I walked in the front door of a supermarket yesterday morning and saw the entrance and aisles literally overflowing with cut flowers, plants, red mylar balloons and cards for Valentine’s Day.  Normally I’m not fond of contrived holidays that are geared primarily toward retail but mostly, I like this one. In my opinion, any day devoted to the idea of love is one to be appreciated.  It doesn’t have to be solely romantic love that’s celebrated — Valentines are shared in all kinds of relationships. In elementary school we exchanged Valentines with every person in the class and my all-time favorite came in the third grade from a girl named Jeanne.  I don’t recall the sentiment or what the outside of the card looked like — but inside there was a stick of Juicy Fruit, tucked into a special slot made for holding a piece of gum. In retrospect, I can’t imagine anyone’s mother buying cards that distributed gum to a classroom full of eight year olds and there’s a good chance that the teacher was not overjoyed, I don’t remember. I couldn’t chew the gum until school was over and all day long I secretly sniffed it in anticipation. I think today is also an absolutely perfect day to acknowledge ourselves and for a starter, in memory of that long ago Valentine’s Day, I’m going to splurge on a whole pack of Juicy Fruit.  If you ask nicely, I may share.