Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
THE season of heart-shaped chocolates and roses is upon us. Get ready for the blatantly obvious marketing and shameless ploys to assign a monetary value for your affection towards your significant other!
There isn’t anything wrong with a day that focuses on the importance of love and commitment. There is something wrong with the way we go about showing our love and commitment. The hastily bought bouquet, the cramped restaurant, the tacky balloons … who are we trying to fool?
Instead, I suggest that we reinvent Valentine’s Day. Give it a makeover. Strip away the layers of dirt and varnish and give it a new coat of paint. We’ve come a long way since the times of St Valentine, where soldiers and Christians were forbidden from marrying, and we can choose what Valentine’s Day means for us.
Why not celebrate all kinds of love? Romantic, platonic and familial. Your partner deserves to be celebrated. Your friends deserve to be celebrated. Your family, who have been there at your worst, deserve to be celebrated. Let’s use February 14 as a day to appreciate the people who matter to us. Buy roses for your mum. Surprise your best friend with chocolate. We’re incredibly lucky to have people who love us.
