Don’t Polarize Valentines Day

Valentine’s Day is here again, and the world (or at least the confined population of UR to which students are exposed) is divided.
One side consists of those who feel the love in the air and gaze with compassion and admiration at their significant others. These lovers look at the giant Teddy bears, boxes of chocolates, handmade cards, and public displays of affection as “adorable” and verbalize several “aww”s and “that is so cute”s. Those in this group who don’t have valentines will desperately hope for a secret admirer, or at least for their best friend to buy them something “sweet” so they have a present to carry around. Boys will feel pressured to do something romantic, and girls will wonder if their boys will live up to expectations.
The second group sees the holiday as a social construct, a benefit to greeting-card companies, jewelry stores, and chocolate factories. For these people, Valentine’s Day may be an unwelcome reminder of happier days or a reason to notice for a few solid weeks that they are not in a relationship. Or they may have someone special and just think the holiday is stupid in general. Many people say that couples who really love each other do not need a holiday to show it.
A typical, published opinion piece would take one of these standpoints. This could be a rant defending or hating on Valentine’s Day. But the argument here is that the people who spend their time ranting about how unappreciated or artificial the holiday is are wasting their time. Whether a person likes the holiday or not, they should leave it to exist in peace. Buy a card, don’t buy a card. Give flowers and chocolates, forget it exists. Splurge on expensive jewelry, or agree that you can’t buy love. Live and let live. While yes, couples should do nice things for each other regardless of what day of the year it is, people shouldn’t insult the couples who do make a big deal of it all.
The origin of Valentine’s Day goes back to a man named Valentine who was in prison and wrote letters to a girl signed, “From your Valentine.” So, as it has a historic context, Valentine’s Day deserves to be treated with the same apathy as all the other holiday’s whose origins have been forgotten or disregarded by society. The fact that it involves the ever-complicated domain of romance should not give it reason to cause any significant debate.
Valentine’s Day may be seen  by many as exaggerated by attention-hungry couples and promoted by commercial establishments, but when it comes down to it, it is just a holiday that deserves to be treated like all of the other holidays, whether it be with enthusiasm, disdain, or apathy.