February 14, 2004
Yesterday evening, I realized all of a sudden that I needed to get E.S. a card for Valentine's Day. We'd already decided that we weren't going to make a big deal of the holiday, but for me to let it go by unremarked didn't seem like the right choice, either. At the same time, it would be perilously easy to take, according to the card I'd give, any number of emotional steps I feel completely unprepared to take.
Do you have any idea how fucking impossible it is to find a Valentine's Day card on which the word "love" is not printed anywhere?
Correction: do you have any idea how fucking impossible it is to find a Valentine's Day card on which the word "love" is not printed anywhere but that also doesn't have the words "to the best grandparents in the world" on the cover?
I was on the verge of going to the drugstore, buying red construction paper and rubber cement, cutting out a heart shape, and making my own valentine for E.S. The only thing that prevented me was the memory of the valentines I used to make in school, all of which were so lopsided and deformed that they clearly represented hearts in advanced stages of atherosclerosis. So I kept hunting and came up with this:
The artsily-torn pink paper with the embedded leaves indicates that someone has put some effort into making this card, even if that someone wasn't me. In point of fact, that someone is apparently named Ronin; he, she, or it lives in Wales and, if the information on the back of the card is to be believed, built the thing by hand using recycled materials. The red heart--far more symmetrical than anything I'd be able to manufacture--is a nod to tradition that allows the card to imply an appropriate degree of romantic feeling.
The difficulty of selecting the card was, however, nothing compared to coming up with what to write inside it.
And that, I'm afraid, I'm not going to post here.
Posted by Faustus, MD at 08:56 AM
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Comments
1) Jeff said (on 02/14/04 at 04:57 PM):
I sidestepped this problem entirely by purchasing a card that was not expressly meant for Valentine's Day. (Of course, the quote on the front is from Carl Jung, so how romantic is that? Yes, I know, don't answer that.)
I also bought a big box of chocolates from the local fine confectioners known as Bissinger's, but that wasn't completely selfless, as I'm hoping they will be shared with me....
2) sherry said (on 02/14/04 at 06:05 PM):
oi, don't tease faustus! dan and i boycotted it except i got him a copy of 'love story' and he got me some flowers he new i;d like, not cliched roses!
3) John said (on 02/14/04 at 06:14 PM):
Wales is lovely. I'm from Wales, although I didn't make the card. I'm pleased that a fellow countryman saved your Valentine's Day dilemma.
4) Anonymous #7 said (on 02/14/04 at 11:43 PM):
Awwwww!!!! Come on! Post. Post! I'm dyin' here.
5) Jalal said (on 02/15/04 at 12:44 PM):
Just when I thought you can not get more cruel.
6) Jenniy said (on 02/15/04 at 10:22 PM):
I went through the EXACT same thing! Trying to find a card that didn't say love or "I'm so glad I'm spending my life with you". Finally found the perfect one, only to lose it. Fortunately for me, in the 3 weeks between then and Valentine's we said we loved eachother, which made the second trip to the store much easier now that I wasn't avoiding the word :)
7) Alyson Tamara Guard said (on 02/16/04 at 05:30 AM):
In Australia, such cards are plentiful, and generally wordless and stuff...
They are stocked in good chemists everywhere...
Alyson
8) ruggerjohnnyd said (on 02/17/04 at 10:40 AM):
I found it hard to find a card that said "I know you are afraid of commiting but I like you anyway" card!
9) Wayne said (on 02/17/04 at 04:09 PM):
That was so sweet :) I love hand made cards.
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