By Dr. Glenn Mollette
Valentine’s Day is a befuddling time – bewildering, confusing.
Flowers that you would buy to give to someone are probably already tripled in price. Our local grocery store sometimes sells a dozen roses for under $30, but they will be over $70 during Valentine’s season. You can’t go a week early and save either. They are smart about that and have already priced them higher.
Those Valentine boxes of candy have been out for awhile. If you want to buy a cheap box you had better go now. A retailing friend told me about a man walking in his store late on Valentine’s Day one year and the only boxes of candy left were the very expensive ones. He said the man stood and looked befuddled and finally gave in and shelled out the cash but he could tell the man was feeling the pinch in his billfold.
Women like candy, flowers, cards, dinners, jewelry and all kinds of stuff. Men like stuff too but speaking from a man’s point of view it seems like the pressure is on us men to not foul up Valentine’s Day.
I always try to come up with the flowers and a card and usually a dinner out. My wife and I agreed a long time ago that we didn’t need candy. We figured this out the year my wife bought me a pound of really good chocolate and I ate the entire box in less than 24 hours. You see, sometimes when we are treated too good, we just make ourselves sick.
Valentine’s Day is about warm feelings, love and showing kindness to special people. It’s certainly about not forgetting the day or the warm feelings will go south. I like how we did it in grade school. We had a Valentine’s card box and my mother would buy me a cheap box of Valentine cards and we made sure everybody in the class got a card. Sometimes people would not receive as many as others and some cute girls and guys always got a few more. That may or may not have been so good.
Maybe this Valentine’s Day while you are being romantic toward your spouse of significant other you can pass some kindness and love out to some others. If you can get to the cheap boxes of candy early you can buy several people a box. I’ve found that my coworkers love getting a small box of candy as do children and friends. It never hurts to pass the love around.
I was taught to love God and my fellowman but I can’t love Hitler, serial killers. ISIS terrorists and a few other evil people. God has a kind of love that I don’t always understand or grasp, especially when it comes to me. Why would he ever love me? It befuddles me. This year think about befuddling a few people as Valentine’s Day gives you a perfect opportunity.
Glenn Mollette is the publisher of Newburgh Press, Liberty Torch and various other publishing imprints; a national columnist – American Issues and Common Sense opinions, analysis, stories and features appear each week In over 500 newspapers, websites and blogs across the United States.