Will Lyons (The Beacon)
By Will Lyons, Staff Commentary
Dr. Seuss should write a sequel to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" about Valentine's Day. You can pick your own reason for why this fictional feast day is the worst of them all. Chances are for one reason or another you have been dreading today.
If you're single you'll be reminded all day of your relationship status and compare it to years past-a seemingly accurate benchmark of how happy you are. But in actuality, I think single people have it easy on Valentine's Day.
For people in relationships, perhaps the most meaningless of performances will go on this afternoon and evening. Couples will grudgingly spend exorbitant amounts of money, dress especially nice and stifle bodily functions for an entire day just to have the chance to achieve "the perfect Valentine's Day."
"The perfect Valentine's Day" hype is forced and created by companies so that couples spend money on and before Feb. 14. Think about all the ads on TV, radio and Facebook telling us to spend and spend more. Every day for a month we've been assaulted with advertisements and conditioned subconsciously to uphold this all-important day.
According to Yahoo! Finance, the average American will spend an incredible $239 on Valentine's Day this year, and all that money buys is added stress on a day already fraught with expectations.
So much expectation gets put into the planning for Valentine's Day that everyone's V-Day plans are bound to fall flat on their face. The aftertaste of Valentine's Day is disappointment, and you know what the cure in America is for disappointment? Buying more stuff.
I can think of a lot of better things to do with $239 than trying to have the perfect date, but if you have to do the song and dance of Valentine's Day, why not spend your money in a more meaningful way? Buy each other a level of support on your favorite Kickstarter or Indiegogo idea. For dinner, forget the Melting Pot. There are lots of restaurants in North Portland that need customers. Perhaps patronize a place that supports your student newspaper.
Above everything else, question why it is you go through the motions of Valentine's Day. Does this tradition really bring you happiness, make you feel closer to someone else, or is it another hurdle in having relationships-a societal roadblock to be surmounted?
Being manipulated is an unfortunate side effect of living in America these days and we need to start calling out corporations, banks and established traditions on their deceptions. I'm of the mind that love isn't corporate, or a $16 billion moneymaking holiday, but maybe I'm just a Grinch.
Will Lyons is a junior English major. He can be reached at lyons14@up.edu.
(Ann Truong | The Beacon)
