A Black Heart

In honor of the greatest marketing achievement in all of communications history, I would like to take time and congratulate Hallmark on successfully creating a timeless occasion where they can almost guarantee a jump in sales. Yes, I am talking about the much covenanted, respected, and hated holiday of Valentines Day.

While i was growing up i would always here my parents refer to Valentines Day as a Hallmark Holiday and yet my father would go out and buy a card and some sort of gift for my mother. It was almost expected. Even if you are only casually dating someone, Valentines day is a day where you are expected to exchange gifts and spend money you don't have on your significant other.

If you don't have some one special in your life, you wind up hating the day because you are reminded (on an almost hourly basis) that you are either lonely or socially inept (i mean this in the nicest way).

But still, I think congratulations is in order for who ever was brilliant enough to think up a day where people would show their significant other how much they loved them with a folded piece of paper that has a cute, quirky, or loving saying on it. Nothing says I love you like a $4.00 piece of paper with a a lame excuse for a pick up line and your signature on it. It makes me all tingly with excitement(sarcasm).

Don't think me bitter. Valentines day is a great idea and is a perfect time to show someone how much you care but i can't understand how a folded card got put into the mix. To me, it says - look how much i care, i drove to the nearest Walgreen's and spent 5 minutes trying to find the perfect card for you. Aren't you impressed.

Maybe I have a black heart. Or maybe I expect too much from myself and the rest of the male population (because lets face it, it is mostly the men who are scrambling to find some kind of Valentines day gift and a Hallmark card is the easiest option). To me, the expressing of your feelings to the ones that you care the most about shouldn't be some sort of mass produced, cheap cop out but instead it should be creative and deliberate. Your present should show them that they are important to you and that you spend hours think about them.

I don't think that i am the only one with a Blackened Valentines day heart and for Hallmark to realize, convert, and capitalize off of people like us, they deserve a round of applause. So cheers to you Hallmark for helping our nation cheapen our love for others to the point it is worth $5.00+tax.