Happy Valentine’s Day …
Call me overbearingly pessimistic but I have never quite understood the hype that surrounds one of the biggest days of the year which happens to be just another day of the working week , just a bit more red and all sorts of fuzzy.
Maybe it’s the singleness of my age talking or someone who just cannot bear the over hype of any occasion unless its Christmas, including the day I descended on this planet to the extent that I until this day, hate being sang happy birthday to. So why would I support just one singled out day to celebrate love which believe me, I so believe in.
The RED is all over town, the flowers, the soft toys that get bigger and bigger, the frames with obvious messages of I love you and you only, the clothes, the bakes and cakes, the stores and the malls and even the restaurants and clubs now boasting of the best in safety protocols on a night that will make social distancing look like a joke right in the middle of a pandemic. But then again does love really stop for anyone or anything. It seems almost normal the way it is going so far where I am with protocols in place but really how does one not get mad when sent so many gifts on this occasion without thinking of how many hours will it take to sanitize them all. I would I know for sure.
This year valentines day will be different no doubt but what catches my attention is the hype around it. While most of the world is battling with variants of the virus that doesn’t seem to want to end its shelf life, who are we thinking of one of the most loved days of the year. Is it our better or bitter half. Is it the people who have no one and worse even during a pandemic?
I for one this year would like to think more specially of the ones who have no one to be part of the V day hype. Specially the ones who dearly desire doing so. Believe me when I say, I have been there and I know how it feels. As a growing child I would watch my parents celebrate this special day with the mandatory red roses and the chocolates that came with fancy packings . In a household with two daughters my father felt obliged to take his three darling ladies out to dinner regardless if we wanted to avoid being third or fourth wheel on this day of all days. He just refused to take no for an answer. But nevertheless somewhere deep down despite my stubbornness to give up to this day’s hype, I like any other woman wished for the same like others that someone would come right up and sweep me off my feet with red roses, chocolates and a couple of balloons and end the night with the Cinderella-ish dinner that would come with a time frame before which this princess had to get home. But all that passes over the years. The realization that this day comes and goes like any other gets to some people eventually.
So this year I decided to use my platform and make things a different by reminding ourselves of the thousands or probably millions , alone in the pandemic, surviving and fighting it and helping others in this crucial time when humanity is in most need of humanity itself. Here is to those not just fighting the pandemic of 2020 ( it doesn’t deserve my attention to be called by name ) but also the pandemics of loneliness, depression, mental health disorders, abandonment, financial crisis, homelessness and hunger amongst so many worldwide issues. Of course let us also keep in mind not just the vulnerable but also the strong that are fighting nonstop to make life return to at least a bit of normalcy. Our frontline workers, our sanitization workers, our domestic helps, to the single women and then to the single mothers, to the single men and broken hearted,to those cheated on to those whose loved ones are away, to our women and men at the borders and our security guards, to every commonly misunderstood person to the ones battling their own demons, to the ones who get no raise or appraisal at work, to the housewives who work a job with no breaks. I hear you. Lets take a moment to make a stranger’s day with a simple smile or a word of good feeling like a thank you on this valentine’s day and make it one to remember.
Meanwhile I on the other hand can dream of the day I eventually meet someone who does sweep me off my feet with a cup of latte and the words, “What an overrated day this is.”
One Latte To Go 