I had a profound conversation while shopping the other day. I never imagined that I would find perception changing inspiration at a Macy’s in a mall but I found it in the words of a watch sales woman. They had a pretty decent sale on watch’s at the time, considering it was the valentines/presidents day sale madness that engulfed shopping centers the country over but on a pizza drivers salary even a 20% of sale doesn’t make a decent watch affordable. I asked the helpful and rather song filled attendant if sales like this happened often on watch’s and she said “Oh im sure soon because…oh…well im sure there’s some holiday next month and then another one after that, you know how it is.” That is a profound statement.
The holiday that the sale was attributed to was president’s day, as I mentioned before. I began to think about what the watch salesperson said, and realized I don’t fully grasp the importance of the holiday. I am not aware of any traditions that surround the holiday nor do I really register it as anything more than a sale day and a day off. I can’t think of anyone that I know that does either. Presumably it has to do with honoring the former presidents of our country but when was the last time you or anyone you know spent the day somberly honoring the presidents of old? Most Americans spend it by recovering from chocolate and romance overdoes from valentines via shopping for more tangible products rather then chocolate and flowers. How many holidays do we celebrate in our nation that have become similar in tradition?
Valentines day, the day that we use to define love, is the paramount example of the commercialization of holidays. Just look at the massive amount of importance that we put on this single day in defining relationships between humans. If you have a significant other on this day, you are essentially required to do something “special” for them; not doing so can have dire consequences for your relationship. If you are single on valentines day it serves as a glaring reminder that you are not fulfilling your duties properly in regards to love and relationships and that you must do your best to find this brand of corporate defined love as soon as you can, that you may celebrate next valentines day properly instead of alone, possibly contemplating suicide as statistics show is a common pass time for this loveliest of days. This disparity is a fantastic depiction of the wedge that corporations drive into our psyche; a terrible view of just how much control they wield on our minds. January 14th, relationship normal. You can be with your lover in any capacity, no call to be especially romantic and no call to even be with each other. Same goes for basically every other 14th of every other month. What changes on the 14th of February? Clearly we have a holiday but what literally changes between two people on this date. Absolutely nothing. Nothing literally changes between a couple, or rather nothing should however one day can wield so much power over the future or lack there of for a couple.
It seems kind of lame and Christmas specially to say the following (Christmas, another prime example of what this paper is about) but why do we need a defined day to express a certain breed of romance? Its because this day, though indeed having historical importance, has been taken over by entities who have realized that there is a lot of money to be made in the industry of “love.” There seems to be noting, in my mind, that carries more weight then saying “I love you” directly to your lovers face but that doesn’t matter any more. You must say it with chocolate, flowers, greeting cards and other temporary objects, nothing definite, nothing built to last so next year on valentines the process can be repeated. Perhaps this explains the push for diamonds. Some certainly have picked up on the lack of staying power of cards and chocolate so along comes a diamond conglomerate to inform us that diamonds are forever, making us pay excessive sums for a tightly controlled and generally corrupt industrial byproduct.
Why can’t we move beyond these callous materialistic ideals of our holidays, our love and celebrations of our lives? I don’t have a connection to the reading with this rant but I think it holds within the context of the class as a whole because clearly we have been infected with the parasite of consumerism, making us do things, believe things, attach to things that deserve none of these reactions. Love is our most complex and desired emotion, and its been made into a product for us to abide by. To the world it seems callous to say it but I didn’t do shit for my girlfriend on valentines day beyond the ordinary, but that’s because I take her out all the time. I don’t use a day or a collection of products to define my relationship, I simply act my best at all times, and I believe more people would find more definite relationships if they did the same.
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