Transforming Valentine’s Day
For me, Valentine’s Day has long been synonymous with affectionate greetings from cartoon characters.
As a child in the politically incorrect 1970’s, I addressed my Aristocat cards – “You’re purrfect Valentine!” – to only those students I truly cared for. I gently deposited my stack in the humongous red cardboard box on the teacher’s desk and waited anxiously to see how many cards I would receive as the designated mailman made his rounds in the classroom.
In college, I was flattered to receive a pink carnation from a secret admirer. The attached card had a cartoon gorilla saying “I go bananas over you!”
Most years, my husband and I favored lighthearted notes over saccharine Hallmark missives.
And with children in grade school, I purchased countless boxes of Power Rangers, Looney Tunes, Sponge Bob and Disney Princess themed Valentines, always making sure that we had enough for each child.
As my children grew up, I was able to extend the tradition of sending corny Valentines with Tweety Bird and Snoopy cards to young nieces and nephews.
That was until this year, when I accepted the fact that no one in my family was age appropriate for messages from juvenile heroes.
With this realization and the passing of a milestone birthday, I thought this would be the perfect year to change tradition.
I wanted to find a message for Valentine’s Day that would be mature, meaningful and true. I needed wise words that would resonate with me.
And since this was my first Valentine’s Day on Facebook, I wanted it to be worthy of posting and sharing with friends and relatives.
After researching numerous websites dedicated to love quotes and beautiful poetry written by Keats, Tennyson, Shakespeare, Browning and many authors unknown, I chose my favorite:
‘The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they’re still alive.’ -Optimus Prime
Happy Valentine’s Day.
PS: Maybe some traditions aren’t meant to be changed. Upon further review, I discovered that Optimus Prime is a character in the Transformers animated cartoon series.