V-day

As I’m typing this line, it is now officially Valentine’s day. For single, uncommitted people like me, it’s another day to be reminded about what is (apparently) missing in our lives. But on the second thought, it doesn’t have to be February 14. It could be any day in March or August or December. Who needs a date (February 14) when you have friends and family members constantly asking you, “So, how come you’re still unattached?”? Now, let me rethink that last line—even strangers, I've experienced, can ask you that.

After almost a month-long stay in Uncle Sam’s place, I thought I’ve already escaped friends and family’s speculating (and planning) my lovelife—“maybe it’s this guy she’s meeting in NY” or “there’s this nurse from Brooklyn” or “you should stay longer to meet Eddie.” On my flight back home, I sat next to a fifty-ish man who engaged me in a conversation about books and life in the US and Philippines. In the middle of the conversation, he asked, “Are you married?” I blushed when I said, “No.” “You know I have a son who . . . ” my seatmate rattled on about the incredible qualities of his son. Oh no!You too?! Well, I decided to just take it as a compliment, a man who just met me wanting me for his son. :-)

Going back to V-day, I haven’t really dreaded this day to the point of wanting to take an extra-large dose of sleeping pills on February 13 to wake up on February 15. As far as I am concerned, it’s just an ordinary day.

I will not go around cursing businesses raking in big bucks with their special for-couples-only-promo. I will not look at couples in red and mutter under my breath how baduy they are. Even if it’s just an ordinary day for me, it’s a special day for them. And the least I can do for them—businesses and couples alike—is to be happy.
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True love makes a man want, not a woman, but one particular woman—the beloved herself, not the pleasure she can give.

C.S. Lewis