This isn't a typical Valentine's Day rant.

It's become cliche to rant about Valentine's Day. "It's just invented by Hallmark" "It cheapens real feeling; it's one day to treat your loved one like you should be treating them /every/ day"

That's true. But then, how many of us really /do/ treat our loved ones like that every day? How many of us, each and every day, tell our SO's exactly how much they mean to us and how glad we are they're in our lives?

I thought not. Maybe, over-commercialized, hyped, and sickly-sweet as it is, we could use a day to remind us of what we should be doing year-round.

But there's another side to this, and that's our society's tendency to stifle negativity. Showing your love or happiness is socially acceptable (as long as you're not /too/ enthusiastic). But showing negative emotion? Expressing the fact that you're angry, or depressed, or feeling bad? No, that just "brings people down". Bottle that **** up, tuck it away, brood over it in private. No one wants to deal with negativity. It's a little too real; it reminds them that the world isn't perfect, that even when their lives are going well, there's people dying, people starving, people raping and killing, people whose lives are spiralling downwards. We don't like to think about that. We'd rather all problems be solved in a half-hour, with commercial breaks to get snacks, and nothing unpleasant to ever last for long.

Well, negativity is a fact of life. Hate is a human emotion, and it's just as important as love. And maybe we need a day to remind us of /that/, too.

So, what do you hate? And I don't mean the weak dislike that the word's come to be used for "Oh, I /hate/ it when they're out of cappucino" "Oh, I /hate/ it when I have to pump my own gas". None of that. What makes you boil with rage? What makes you so angry you can't see straight? What genuinely infuriates you, makes you want to grab someone by the shirt and scream in their face, makes you want to batter away with your fists until your arms are tired? What do you despise?

Tell us about it. Write it down. Get that hate firmly fixed in your head, and write every thought you have about it, every reason that it fills you with anger, every loathsome detail, until you can't think of a single thing more to say about it. Write until you can't write any more. Spit all your bile onto the page, or screen, and fall back in your chair, empty and released.

Feels good, doesn't it?

Congratulations. You've just celebrated St. Harlequin's Day.

February 15th: A Day of Hate. Won't you join me?