Living life: Love Actually

A few days from now, Valentine’s Day, love it or hate it, will be shoved right in your face. Women will demand to be loved, for the umpteenth time. Men will dread the soapy script. Roses and candlelit dinners will have their day in the sun. As you dust your red dresses or red jackets (God forbid!) spare a thought for perpetual valentine cynic. Soon, they will be all over the place poisoning the air with negative self-fulfilling myths of how this whole valentine brouhaha is just that, brouhaha, pretending to be wise and all knowing while wearing their broken hearts on their collars. The female cynic will be full of depressing yarns and the moral of the story will always be that all men are dogs. They will warn you that men never have only one Valentine. That the one who really matters is the one they take out last, for reasons unsuitable to mention in a family newspaper. They will tell you to accept nothing less than a full bunch of flowers, with a romantic card with lots of sweet nothings scribbled onto it, delivered to your office first thing in the morning or else they love you not, really. Their closing argument, Valentine does not really matter, because it’s some foreign thing, besides your man should love you through all the 365 days of the year, not just this day. Watch out for the double speak; men are devils, Valentine’s Day does not matter, blah, blah, blah. You might think she is the worst creature on this planet until you meet the male doomsayer. To him, women are all bxxxxxs, and are after your money. They cheat, cheat and cheat. They are dishonest and unfaithful. They are not to be trusted. Besides, men want valentine dates for one thing, and that is why they never willingly date their wives or longtime girlfriends for valentine - plus a lot more crap. There is no denying that the cynic’s world is not entirely Utopian. Men and women cheat, naturally, since time immemorial. Valentine is definitely not the end of the world, but there is also something peculiar in people who always prophesy doom. Matters of the heart are a puzzle to the inexperienced teenager, who is still in love with the idea of falling in love, as well as to the veteran septuagenarian who has been there, done that. Men hate showing emotional frailties that are associated with love, want to always appear macho, while women hate to appear lonely, but like to prove how independent they can be from men. But the truth is men and women are all prone to this thing, at least once in our lives. So during this Valentine’s, keep away from the naysayer. Risk your heart a little, enjoy the chase, and live the good times while they last. Have some life. The love thing is good for your smile and your heart, so they say. Let the lonely ducks infect you not with their sour-laced pessimism about everything emotional. Try to love actually. Contact: kelviod@yahoo.com