as soon as you start to make room for the parts that aren't you it gets harder to bloom in a garden of love

this happened:

ss1moose: katesaysanything needs to blog about valentines day

i'm taking blogging requests now.

Valentine's Day is the most polarizing day of the year that Hallmark has ever made. in fact, lonely singles will try to invalidate Valentine's Day and hide their loneliness by protesting against Hallmark and their manufacturing of this holiday. over-the-top couples will give into the red roses and boxes of chocolates mentality, with a defensive promise that they're doing it differently than everyone else, but actually enjoy getting caught up in the cliche for a moment. nobody recognizes that this is fine as long as you come back down to earth eventually.

i don't think anyone has really gotten Valentine's day right since the second grade, where you'd give everyone Barbie (or Transformers) stamped pieces of folded cardboard-weight paper with candy attached to it, as a way of showing appreciation and maybe telling one person you have a crush on them and then running away (a practice I still exercise today). it was a straight forward process defined by our parents, classmates, teachers, and simplicity. there is usually some some of celebration where you eat cupcakes, distribute your valentines, and celebrate. this celebration is severely underrated. 1) cupcakes are rad 2) valentines are rad 3) how often do we get to set aside a day, or even time in our day, to tell me people we love that we appreciate them? so simple an eight-year-old child can do it, and so simple adults don't.

the truth is, Valentine's Day is a Hallmark holiday. it was originally started in celebration of a martyred saint, which could lead this blog into a whole bunch of unnecessary symbolism i refuse to get into. but who cares? who cares if the damn holiday is an annual department store marketing tool and who cares if you're single and are going out with your single friends for cocktails and who cares if you're in a relationship and having one day of unhealthy devotion to the person you're in that relationship with filled with canned romance--or even better--real romance. it's just a day to celebrate love and appreciate those around you. the avenue we take to do so shouldn't matter. anything more than this is fake, anything less than this stems from an unnecessary bitterness that you are holding against your friends or an ex or yourself. nobody in this world is a allergic to love. regardless of which "type of love" your are celebrating, you should still celebrate it, whether that's with your family, friends, boyfriend/girlfriend, or even yourself. maybe the issue isn't with Valentine's Day, but with our inability to widen the scope of what that means. putting a limit on love is stifling the most necessary intangible force that we need.

let it bloom.
-k.