Happy Valentine's Day

 

     Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Isn't the valentine above hilarious? I'm not sure how much more appropriate it could get, considering my main interests being in science and evolution. Thanks so much to Vanzetti for sending it my way.

     I also got this infinitely adorable valentine yesterday, how amazing could a guy really get? Actually, I guess no one can really understand exactly what I mean unless I heavily elaborated into embarrassing measures, but just trust me on this one!

     I've never been one to care too much about Valentine's Day. It's always been simply another day, except sometimes my parents give me candy and a card. I think my fondest memories of Valentine's Day are from when I was still in school. In elementary school, I loved making and decorating the heart-shaped envelopes, and picking out a pack of valentines from the store to stuff them with. I always got so nervous when the time came to approach my crush's desk (last, of course), and poke a specific one inside.

     Valentine's Day was especially exciting during middle school. I've still got homemade valentines from my then-closest friends that I've held on to after all these years.

     Middle school was also when I was introduced to "candygrams," a candy rose with a note attached that could be either signed or anonymous, depending on your level of bravery or cruel joke. I once sent one anonymous with a note that said, "Press this against your heart for it to turn to ice." Cleverly snipped from a Bill Cosby line, if you recognize it.

     Candygrams were one of the best things to ever hit my school, I thought, and they were wildly popular the week before Valentine's Day. Once the day arrived, they'd be passed out by student assistants at the end of the school day, going from classroom to classroom with arm fulls. At the time, I hadn't ever felt more loved than the year the student assistants entered my classroom with barely twenty candygrams, and I got over ten of them from various friends and admirers. I was so resented, but I had never been resented for being loved.

     By browsing Facebook or Myspace, it's easy to calculate a ratio of just how many people despise this holiday. I think their hatred towards a half-hearted, silly holiday that only lasts a single day out of the entire year, is really telling of their daily attitude and views on life.

     What's the purpose in being angry or depressed over a holiday based - as we know it now - on love? There isn't a logical one, even if you've just been cheated on by your girlfriend who may or may not be pregnant with your baby, etc., chances are you have something else you can love. The key here that most people miss, however, is that the principle lies in something, not someone. We do not need to be in love to survive, we only convince ourselves we do. We want emotions like love which suffice for our forced desire, and when we don't get what we think we want, we crumble to our childish behaviors by throwing a fit to redeem ourselves. But weakness is rarely redeemable!

     I'm not going to go too in-depth today. Any holiday that's been widely claimed should be spent happily if a majority of your surrounding population is going to be. I've mentioned it before in previous posts, around Christmas I believe, that although a holiday is obviously a symbol for something, sometimes something we don't necessarily agree with, we should all take advantage of the "random" spread of joy. I'm an atheist, and I take advantage of Christmas in the fact that it's a time when my parents are both under the same roof for hours as opposed to minutes. It's one of the best feelings in the world to pretend my life is normal. I felt this today when my mom dropped by, by surprise with an orchid that I have now named Harold, after the horticulturist in Twin Peaks. My parents know me all too well.

My Absolute Favorite Love Song

"Wight Spider" by Marilyn Manson

I’ll build you a shiny / dollhouse or church / where you can shrink
into a tiny wight spider / and gorge on horrid memories / with conceited wings

Smother the past in a cocoon / or me

and I’ll help you move /all the bodies

I’ll possess you but I don’t need you
to be another one of my possessions
I don’t need you to be my possession

And I won’t make you kneel, for anyone but me
Won’t promise a star, don’t promise your soul
We’ll say that we don’t believe

I’ll keep you wet when the world is dry
I can see them coming / I’ll take you back inside
if they came for answers / I’ll wrap my claws around your mouth tight
we’ll consume each other / until there’s nothing left to hide
and they can all drown in our blood

We can’t haunt this home, home anymore
no, no, no, no, no, no
We can’t haunt this home, home anymore
no, no, no, no, no, no
We can’t haunt this home, home anymore
no, no, no, no, no, no
We can’t haunt this home, home anymore
no, no, no, no, no, no