Doctor Strangebuck (Or How I Learned to Love Valentine’s Day)

The last time I wrote on this dear blog of mine, I was a bit lonely and very, very whiny. Since then a lot of things have happened and while I don’t have a girlfriend still, I’ve dealt with a lot of the emotional problems that caused me to be so lonely back then. Also I got laid, which was pretty awesome, and redeemed sex for me. So I’d like to think I’ve matured over the past four months, to the point that I really don’t care what day today is.

You see, the past Brendan would have entered this day feeling super depressed. I would have walked around seeing all the lovers here and there looking all lovey dovey and jealously would have filled my being. I would have been depressed on being single and spent the day beating myself up. If I was feeling in a particularly writey mood, I would have posted a little emo diatribe about how evil this holiday is and how it made me feel all depressed and shit. Because it did make me depressed for a long time, including the year I wasn’t single.

But I simply don’t care anymore. This day fails to inspire the feelings it used to. And I don’t mean in a, “I feel sorta dead kind of way.” Valentine’s Day just doesn’t piss me off anymore. It’s just another day. A day where chocolate prices might be marked up to stupidly high levels, maybe, but it balances it out when the day afterward chocolate is deliciously cheap. It’s consumerism for the sake of consumerism masked under the auspices of love. As simply that, the holiday works and if that product actually gives someone, anyone joy, why get all jelly?

So when I see people getting all down about this consumerist holiday, I now have to ask, “Why?” It’s not like this holiday is actually about love. It’s about love in a heart shaped box that has “Fannie May” written on it. But I know the answer; it’s because the holiday reminds lonely people how lonely they are. The reason this day doesn’t bother me is that I don’t feel lonely anymore. I don’t need someone to be happy anymore. Perhaps if those lonelyhearts could learn what I’ve learned, maybe V-Day wouldn’t hurt them either.