Thoughts on valentines day

Is it time to fall in love again? This question occurred to me over the weekend. The boy in the house (who has had a girlfriend since last year) was asking about how to get to Dangwa (the depot for fresh flowers in Manila) and about prices in general of valentines day gifts and I could not relate. In the college where I teach, I scheduled a major examination on Valentines Day (and warned students that failure to show up would result in dire consequences). Bah! I was in SM window-shopping for a new backpack and I found the valentines day displays cheesy and tacky. I have become the valentines day equivalent of Christmas’ Uncle Scrooge. Nooooooooooo!

Not that Valentines Day was ever a big deal in my life the way Christmas or Good Friday is. And please do not get me wrong, I am not exactly heartless. I can be romantic when the situation is ripe for it. I think my problem is something similar to performance anxiety - I can not be romantic on cue. For me, valentines is best spent with friends in as normal an environment as possible. And up until two years ago, when careers and tempers started to get in the way, this was how our barkada celebrated valentines – as a group taunting couples (never mind if there were couples within our barkada).

Yesterday, I caught Kris Aquino on television being serenaded by two men (James Yap and Boy Abunda) with that song that goes "you will always be beautiful." I am not a Kris Aquino fan and I can not relate with her "If it can happen to me, it can happen to you too" logic. For one, she is Kris Aquino and whatever happens to her, good or bad, is not just the same when it happens to somebody else. But there was something between her and James Yap that appealed to me – a kind of innocence and naivete.

And that really got me into thinking that these are crazy times that we live in. There are so many things in the world today that simply do not make sense. Perhaps falling madly in love and doing crazy things in the name of love just make so much more sense than politics or economics or social justice.

So by all means, lovers out there, get crazy, get madly, wantonly, giddily in love!

Happy Valentines.


Comments

Sean Saba said…
Happy Valentine's Day, Bongie!
As always, I wish you the BEST of LUCK in LIFE, LOVE, & LUST!
Sorry, I'm not there to guide you with your love life...LOL
7:47 AM
Bong C. Austero said…
Happy valentines, sean!

Oo nga eh...i am missing out on your dr. wow and dr. holmes expertise.
2:48 PM
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