Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Love for sale?...

Valentine's Day is coming and once again I'll come up short. I've never sent my wife a valentine because all the cards seem to expensive compared to their shallow or mawkish thoughts. The last time I sent a valentine was about 1951 and I paid a dollar to send one that had a big padded silk heart to a girl two years younger than me. Of course, I never heard from her and it must have been a big joke with her parents. But then, to me, the world was full of promise. I know my wife would like to get a valentine in the mail with a tender thought but it just wouldn't be me. Her friends tell her their husbands do all these sappy, superficial things like flowers or candy and that makes me mad. Marriage takes a lot of resolve and if you've been married for a long time, as I have, love has morphed into many other things that cannot be expressed so easily. Remember when you learned in high school English that Shakespeare left his wife his "second best bed?" I always thought that was a low blow...
Plus, my wife is a wonderful person!

4 comments:

Beth said...

Frank, why don't you try this?

http://www.ljcfyi.com/2008/02/i-am-really-excited-about-this-project.html

Hee hee!

Haik Bedrosian said...

Beth, that's more work than just the candy, which he already doesn't want to do...

But seriously Frank, life is short. So what if it isn't you? If you know it would make her happy, you should just fake it every five years or so and send a nice card. What's the harm?

Cassandra Jupiter said...

All I want from my husband is a monkey in my bathroom. Is that too much to ask?!

Cassandra Jupiter said...

I don't think it's the work that Frank is opposed to, at least that's not how I read into the post. Rather it's the kind of work or valentine that she would appreciate. I did read somewhere that instead of doing things that are compromises (which could make both of you miserable), couples should focus on taking turns doing what the other likes. This applies for me and Josh. If we compromised or looked to do things that maximized the "happiness" quotient, we'd mostly end up with what he wants to do because I like those activities too, albeit a little less. Now the activities that I want to do, he doesn't like at all.