Spend Money, She'll Love You For It

I’ve written about this before, but it’s such a sticking point with me, I have to vent again about Valentine’s Day. Grrrrrr…….

How can love be measured? How can you show your significant other that you love her beyond all others? That’s simple: buy her something. Not just something…something expensive. The more money you drop, the more you love her.

Just about every advertisement for Valentine’s Day bobbles has a version of: “Show her how much you care…buy her this.” That bothers me. Love is not something to be taken lightly. It’s a powerful emotion that has toppled regimes, caused an untold number of wars, caused people to take their own lives, and others to lose their minds. How can something so big and commanding be held in your hand? No problem, it fits in a tiny velvet box with a hinge that snaps open.

A guy I work with has made himself physically sick the past few weeks, wracking his brain for the perfect gift that will please his girlfriend enough to keep him “out of the doghouse” and maybe get him “a little something back.” He’s figured out the monetary amount to accomplish these goals, he just has to find the right thing to buy.

I feel sorry for him. Not for the stress he’s heaped on himself, but for falling victim to the hype, to the brain-washing diatribes of companies who try to convince us that money (or in this case, the lack of money) is love.

I don’t get it. What ever happened to simply saying, “Honey, I love you.”? Whatever happened to doing something special with and for that person—without the threat of the bottom line? Why can’t we be comfortable enough in our love to just say it?

Words can be the most powerful things on earth, but it seems even they fall under the weight of the almighty dollar. How sad.