Welcome to this week's update of "Saturday"the book. When we last left our protagonists it was Friday afternoon and Elizabeth McGreevy was doing her level best to think of a swell apology gift to give her husband, Fred. Of course, we all know that love means never having to say you're sorry. Except in gift form.
As it turns out, somewhere across town Fred McGreevy is also trying to gin up some gift ideas:
Friday was Valentine's Day. If you somehow managed to not have any of your sensory perceptions functioning for the previous week, you might well have missed it. If any of your senses were in place and you have a significant other, you might have felt obligated to buy something in order to prove you care.
I used to see Valentine's Day as a hollow, mandatory chore. "Why do we even need some phony proxy for our emotions? Doesn't that just erode the significance of genuine emotion?" (I would think in an exasperated and outraged tone of thought.) But these days, I think it's fun. I like trying to think up fun and creative things to give to people I care about. I like seeing their reaction when I get it right (it happens once in a while).
And anyway, giving a gift is no more or less a proxy for conveying emotion than saying the words that represent those emotions. Betcha didn't think there would be a semiotics lesson in here, did you?
Anyway, if you DID miss Valentine's Day and didn't get a gift (and you want to), you're basically in the same boat as Fred. And you might as well take the same route as Fred.
But almost everyone likes to get flowers. I suppose because they're beautiful and they're also the symbol for something beautiful.
Make someone's day. Send them flowers.
This update of "Saturday" the book is brought to you by FTD. FTD: "Send flowers or we'll send a guy to "talk" to you.
Cheers.
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