10 of 365, Valentines?

This is day ten of my attempt to write something, anything, every day for 365 days in a row.

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At the beginning of this project I had a vision of celebrating certain milestones, ten posts, twenty-five posts, fifty, one hundred and so on. However, having reached ten posts during a two-day streak after a hiatus of thirty days it feels a little anticlimactic and honestly not worth celebrating beyond simply being a milestone achieved.

I get a similar vibe from the over-hyped commercial holiday St. Valentine's Day. It feels as though many people validate their happiness in the days leading up to and for a number of days after through the materialistic medium of valentines messages. Not that one can blame them, it is a nice feeling to feel loved, but I honestly find it upsetting to see good people in distress because they don't have a sweetheart and are therefore, in their minds at least, unwanted.

Before meeting my wife Valentines was just another date in the calendar, one that I had rarely noticed beyond the increase in chocolate, tacky toys and card marketing when I get groceries. Because of my past ambivalence the idea of buying a card or present felt weird, but I went along with it because I was dating, and it's the thing you do and since then we "celebrated" every year with a card, sometimes combined with a meal out.

This year we have both decided not to bother, as a boycott on the commercialisation and waste. The idea of buying a card with all the waste that goes into making it for the purpose of saying something that is otherwise said every day in both words and actions feels wrong.

Valentine's Day shouldn't be a day when you base your happiness on how desirable you are, it should instead be a day to be extra nice to everyone – if that is, if you notice it at all.

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🌻