Valentine's Blues

I was reading a blog I follow this morning and - as is often the case when Valentine's Day's approaching and people find themselves in unhappy relationships, especially in North America - its author, Ms Scarlett, is feeling The Blues.

You know which ones - the times when you realize all your childhood dreams about how Life works, choosing the ideal job, the ideal home, the perfect husband to live ''happily ever after'' with... not only will they never happen to you, but they seem to no longer exist anywhere. And, as a matter of fact, they don't.

So how do you ride into the sunset of your life, then? I offered this tidbit of advice:

I know what I want to do, I also know it's no way to make a living.

But it makes me feel fulfilled. Not 'happy', but definitely 'satisfied'.

The storybook ending may no longer exist - maybe it never did - but there are ways to go to bed at night in a better mood than you were in waking up. In my early 30s, I think I can live with that.

If Life is War, then the little battles are as important as the tumbling of the opponent's presidential palace, if not more. The memory of a really good day can last you a long time, and having a pretty decent day is fine, too. The important part is to just minimize the awful ones, and that's usually not even in your own control. Sometimes you just have to learn when to walk away; sometimes it's best you don't.

I just hate to see people get more worked over about their lives when this fake holiday comes around, in mid-fucking winter of all periods. We all know it's a Hallmark holiday invented just to make more money, and many people also know there are actually three different saints named St. Valentine (all three martyrs, not all for Love), but if Society has accepted to purchase cards, chocolate and flowers and decorations all over the place, it sure as fuck didn't give us a paid Holiday at work.

With all the hypocrisy associated with Valentine's, shouldn't we all just say ''fuck it''? Take your lady out on the 13th, then fuck her brains out until the 15th, then take her out again. Forgo the 14th altogether. If you're alone, go to a bar and tell people your spouse just passed away: sympathy sex is relatively easy to get. So what if it's ''fake'' sympathy sex, it's on a fake holiday, where lying to your actual partner by telling them you still love them after way too long and a few affairs is what's expected of you. Lie for you, not them.

Dr. Love - out.