Shades of Love

Today is Valentine's Day--my 2nd Valentine's Day as a wife and the 2nd anniversary of our engagement. We're not going out to an expensive restaurant tonight. I haven't bought chocolates or other red and pink paraphenalia, nor do I expect to receive any. I didn't even buy a card this year, since my husband isn't a big fan of greeting cards. (That's a first--I love them.)
However, I got up extra early this morning to put our Valentine's dinner in the crockpot. Our kitchen is. . .in a very relative state of cleanliness. The living room is somewhat cluttered. I stayed up an extra 10 minutes last night to put away all the clean laundry off the table, so that we could actually have dinner on it tonight. K stayed up to move the kitchen from its state of messiness past the messy-clean boundry. When I get home from my extra meeting after school today that will delay my homecoming an hour and a half, I'll bake dessert and finish dinner preparations. K will probably help. We'll sit down late to a candlelight dinner in our semi-cluttered living room that doubles as a dining room and have a perfectly delightful time.

By contrast, I am watching large numbers of students today strolling down the halls with huge (anywhere from 3 to 12) red mylar baloons, stuffed animals (including a 3 foot wide stuffed red heart), flowers (red roses galore), cards ("To My Wife???"), candy (chocolate, chocolate, chocolate), and more. I overheard a student complaining about the $200 he spent on his girlfriend. I overheard other students joking about someone who broke up with his girlfriend yesterday, planning to make up tomorrow. Tomorrow, things will be back to normal. Couples will be fighting, cussing each other out, making up (making out) in the hall, arguing with rivals, and generally being miserable.

I hope none of my girls get pregnant tonight. I hope all my students learn that money does not buy love or happiness, that poverty can house contentment as well as riches. I hope they live to learn about love that is more than a shower of gifts one day a year.