In my very, very short life so far, my views on Valentine's Day have radically swung from one direction to another back to my original perception. I am not of course talking about the critically panned Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Garner 2010 film Valentine's Day -- which I ashamedly saw not once, but twice, in theaters. I am talking about the beloved holiday named for Saint Valentine.
At first, of course, when I was really little, I loved Valentine's Day. Those days were consumed by pure childhood innocence. Before serious relationships and dating, there was the cherished ritual of putting Valentine candies in little designated pouches for your classmates every February 14th. In those years of elementary school where I had a crush on a girl in the class, I would make sure to, naturally, stuff extra Valentine candies and messages in that particular girl's pouch. Alas, performing this task resulted in no dating or flirtations in third grade. This ritual continued until the middle school years began.
Into the middle school years, I started to slowly grow disenchanted with this holiday. Without divulging into detail, I experienced a horrible Valentine's Day in 2006 - seventh grade - which had nothing to do with any crush or young love interest or anything of that nature. To put it simply, it was a day marked by ridicule and hate, not the spirit of love that defines this day. That single day would come to partly define how I viewed the holiday for the coming years. That occurrence was soon followed by the famous February 14, 2007 Pennsylvania snowstorm, the mindless manufactured drama of the first two years of high school (though I did give away flowers for the first time on Valentine's Day 2008), and a lack of success in dating anyone while many friends started "going out," in earnest. I hated Valentine's Day.
That didn't last long. I finally had a valentine by February 14, 2010. The atmosphere of love and appreciation of one another that is supposed to consume Valentine's Day felt real and legitimate to me. I finally came around to loving Valentine's Day once again. Why not? It is a great day defined by the expression of something truly uncontroversial: loving one another - a central tenet of the Ten Commandments and one of the fundamental standards of a morally righteous life. Although I have not had a real valentine (a date) in the years since, I still have loved this holiday since that time. The 2011 and 2012 Valentine's Days were marked by reminders of love: exchanging of chocolates and candy grams between some of my best high school friends and dinner with my best friend (2011) and lots of expressions of support for my successful campaign for GW CCAS Undergraduate Senate (2012).
While it is true that one should show this kind of love toward one another every single day of the year, it does nobody any harm to have a day set aside in the year to amplify, fully recognize, and entirely embrace the spirit of love. If we follow this logic, why do we even have some of our most popular non-religious holidays? What is the point of Father's Day, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Veterans' Day, and MLK Day? Should we not love our fathers, our mothers, our servicemen and servicewomen, our veterans, and the contributions of Martin Luther King, Jr. every single day instead of just on one day of the year? Sure. Honoring our parents, troops, MLK, and loving one another every single day while also setting aside holidays in the calendar to recognize these tasks do not have to be mutually exclusive.
To quote The Beatles, "all you need is love." Embrace the atmosphere of love around you, be happy for the wonderful couples you see around you, remind your family and friends just how much you love them, and be a beacon of love to everyone you pass by, become acquainted with, or friends with at any point in time. President Obama said it best in his beautiful January 2011 address at the Tucson memorial service for those lost in the shooting that nearly cost former Rep. Gabby Giffords her life. The President said that in this "fleeting" time we have on Earth, we will be judged partly by "how well we have loved." Indeed. In the Bible, Jesus talks at length about "loving...your neighbor as yourself." It should go without saying but Jesus was literally the perfect example of the kind of unconditional, forgiving, and beautiful love that one should always strive to show to friend and foe alike. Jesus preached of showing stedfast love, displayed tremendous compassion towards the poor and the sick, and displayed the kind of incredible mercy towards others that we can only strive to achieve. That kind of love is at the core of what it means to enjoy and embrace Valentine's Day. Be the most merciful, loving, compassionate soul you can be because after all, it is those qualities that will save all of us from our inner demons and ultimately save the world. In the words of a president whose birthday was celebrated earlier this week, let's appeal to the "better angels of our nature." Love one another. Happy Valentine's Day!
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