I was not in a good mood over the weekend, Valentine’s Day does that to me, I am not a big subscriber to this holiday, if it I have not made that evident, I should have.
So here is the big secret for the day. I don’t like Valentine’s Day … I have not liked it for quite sometime … most of my adult life. But I figured, “why spoil it for all those who do, so I have mainly stayed quiet about it.”
If you are a small child in school, and are sent home with the list, a compulsory file of everyone you are supposed to provide a card for, that is especially cruel.
There are kids who are not going to get a lot of Valentines in this routine or practice and they are going to feel left out and let down.
If you are in a marriage that is on the skids and not doing all that well in these trying times, this is just another ugly reminder that somehow you failed, and you are not going to rejoice or feel like celebrating that.
The mailbox filled up with all this “heart stuff” and copious amounts of emotional fanfare, even a missive chewing me out for not acknowledging the correspondence.
Why is it that people send out tons of this stuff, and then you receive it and they believe you are automatically bound to respond with something? I don’t understand that. I got some negative stuff too, so I am not the only one who feels as they do about this holiday.
Well, I need to get off this, this, such as it is, will do no one any good at all.
My uncle called Saturday night, at 87 years of age, I have to admit, he has become quite the character in my life. Big night in town, he was going down to the lodge to do some “belly rubbing” as he puts it. That is his way of saying, “dancing.” He was busy telling me about this “young thing” that he had met, pretty light on her feet, only weighs 100 lbs and after a couple of shots (bourbon whiskey) “she can get pretty frisky” as he put it.
Then he said, “she is only sixty-years old.”
Over the weekend I did read a well written piece on blended families. You can read it here. A Test Of Love. I didn’t make any comments on it, as the first nine or ten people ahead of me were all women, and I didn’t want to be the only guy weighing in on the issue.
For a long time now I have wanted to write something serious about dysfunctional families, the blended family, and then I read this piece. It is my opinion, especially here lately, that most of this country, the political system, all of it seems to be operating in the dysfunctional arena of life.
Here is a prime example of it.
This bozo, Madoff, the guy that created the Ponzi scheme and made off with $50 billion in other people’s assets? He had been reported to the SEC by a whistle-blower for over NINE YEARS and no one took the guy seriously. So it just continued on and on, to its eventual downfall and shut down, albeit permitted to run its course much too long, and stopped unfortunately, too late.
Friend of mine, sixty-years old, just got canned in the Northwest and he tells me that no one wants to hire him that they “are looking for the young bucks” and he is quite concerned about providing for the family and his lifestyle certainly has taken a new turn.
I read where women, single women, have very few “interview-worthy outfits” to wear and are actually on Craigslist advertising for donations seeking professional wear. People actually asking for $1 or $2 donations to just stay in their homes, to hold their heads above water, desperately seeking a roof over her head for her and her two kids.
Country is changing, our social mores are on the forefront and life as we know it, has taken a turn down the proverbial path, and often, following it and understanding where it is leading us, is somewhat confusing and frustrating.
So we all rush out and we shower our loved one with an expensive dinner, gourmet chocolates, flowers and gifts galore, but all of these things are not going to be enough to conquer a weak economy. I understand that this year, the arrows of cupid are costing about $20 less than last year anyway, so there is the rainbow, the silver lining in all this.
Believe it or not, in all of this, there seems to be one sure fire winner and that is the sale of condoms, they are up (pardon the pun) and as a crippled American economy saps the lifeblood out of most Americans this year, we continue to entertain ourselves at home.
Those of who have not lost them completely or been evicted here lately.
When I can think of some good news to write about I will be back.
OOO
