I used to not like Valentine’s Day. I used to say things like I don’t need no Hallmark holiday to show my woman that I love her. I also used to be naturally romantic.

Before I was married romantic ideas came easy to me. I would dream about one day taking romantic walks, making romantic dinners for the woman I loved, and doing lovey dovey stuff like writing poems. Then one day I got married and it’s like the wellspring of romance dried up. Now I try to think romantically, but after point 2 seconds my mind drifts to something important like if Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski are still married or if beans really are good for you heart. I mean did someone just put that in a song because heart rhymes with what happens after you eat beans or is it really good for your ticker?

A few weeks ago a friend of ours wanted to watch “When Harry Met Sally.” I’ve avoided that movie for my entire adult life, but I just made them watch a movie about a guy who spends an entire movie buried alive in a casket. I felt bad so I gave in and suffered through watched “When Harry Met Sally.” The movie wasn’t as bad as I had built it up to be, but I did think it was slow. There was one scene in the movie that stood out. Sally (played by Meg Ryan) is talking about why she broke up with her boyfriend. The conversation went something like this…

Sally: And Joe and I used to talk about it, and we’d say we were so lucky we have this wonderful relationship, we can make love on the kitchen floor and not worry about the kids walking in. We can fly off to Rome on a moment’s notice. And then one day I was taking Alice’s little girl for the afternoon because I’d promised to take her to the circus, and we were in the cab playing “I Spy” – I spy a mailbox, I spy a lamp-post – and she looked out the window and she saw this man and this woman with these two little kids. And the man had one of the little kids on his shoulders, and she said, “I spy a family.” And I started to cry. You know, I just started crying. And I went home, and I said, “The thing is, Joe, we never do fly off to Rome on a moment’s notice.”

Harry: And the kitchen floor?

Sally: [sadly] Not once. It’s this very cold, hard Mexican ceramic tile.

You see in the movie they talked about romantic ideas but they never acted on them.  It made me think about why I like Valentine’s Day. Sure I don’t need a holiday to show my wife love, but it helps focus my unromantic mind on my wife.  I don’t need Christmas to buy her presents, but I still celebrate Christmas with her. I don’t need a birthday to eat cake, but I still eat cake on her birthday. The point is that I don’t need Valentine’s Day to be romantic, but I am thankful for it because it helps me celebrate my wife.
 
So what are your thoughts about V-Day? Love it or leave it?