Gary Brown| The Repository
Hearts. Look for hearts on your Valentine’s Day cards. They symbolize love.
And, go red. Red is alive and vibrant — just like your romance. Nobody wants to get a Valentine’s Day card with a black-and-white heart on it. It would sort of look like the relationship is dead.
“Sure, the words on the card say you love me,” the recipient might say, “but the black hearts are like getting black roses. Wait, you didn’t do that too did you? ...”
OK, when you consider symbolism, it appears that there is a lot to worry about at this time of year. Holidays such as Valentine’s Day can be dangerous if you’re not careful.
Since Valentine’s Day cards are more or less mandatory if you truly are in love — and even if you aren’t quite sure yet but want to seem so — there should be a sense of urgency, born fromboth affection and obligation, to sendone. But, at the same time, we need to choose a card wisely. We need to send the message that we went to the store because we truly wanted to and we picked out our cards solely based on the love we had in all those hearts on the cards.
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Our cards should shout love.
“Roses are red, violets are blue...” no, no, no, that won’t do.
That saying is trite. Still, you don’t want to go with too much original thinking, either. Diplomat Henry Kissinger once showed that bright men aren’t necessarily hopeless romantics.
“Nobody will win the battle of the sexes,” he supposedly said. “There’s too much fraternization with the enemy.”
If you’re going to steal somebody’s words to scribble on your card, you can do better. Somebody called “Anonymous,” for example, knew his way around the world of love.
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“I look at you and see the rest of my life in front of my eyes.”
Sigh. I’m seeing a smiley face right here.
Local stores don’t yet have their Valentine’s Day cards out as this is being written, so I can’t suggest any favorites, but there are guidelines you can consider when choosing your special holiday greeting.
One, if you truly are in love, don’t joke about it. A humorous card may be cool if you’re trying to cheer up someone, but funny doesn’t always fly for lovers.
If you’re handing someone a greeting card with a freaky-looking alien on the front, holding a heart-shaped balloon, and the “Happy Valentine’s Day” saying claims “Yoda Only One For Me,” you’d better both be “Star Wars” fans.
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Two, make sure whatever you add in the card reflects your true feelings — and those of your loved one. Saying something profound —“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage” — may have worked for philosopher Lao Tzu. But, do any of the rest of us really know what that means?
You may be better off just scribbling “I love you” in there and letting it go at that simple thought.
Unless you are in grade school, don’t give more than a dozen people Valentine’s Day cards — at least not romantic ones. If you’re dating that many people, some of them are probably pretty close to dropping out of the competition —right after they get the holiday out of the way.
Finally, don’t go cheap. It’s Valentine’s Day. Do you want to be the person who measured affection as close to a dollar as possible?
In conclusion, remember the words of “Peanuts” cartoonist Charles Schulz: “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
Flowers are good, too.
