what's love got to do with it....

several days ago...as i navigated through the costco parking lot...two days after yet more snow on long island...i observed the masses heading for the store entrance...having been deprived of bulk food shopping for 24 hours...looking like the walking dead...and then i heard yet another radio ad for valentine's day...and thought about it...someone once said to me years ago...it's just a hallmark holiday...and there is some truth to that statement...after all...what better way for retail to recoup the losses of january's Christmas returns...and i also remembered...not too fondly...the times when after struggling only weeks earlier to secure new year's plans...there i was again...hoping for more than a night of bad pre-cable tv on valentine's...that double punch if it fell on a saturday...flash forward and i was the mom buying packaged cards filled with disney princesses...crayons and markers...the deep desire for acceptance buried in each little card's catch phrase...and as we would pack them in a backpack i thought...lord, what's love got to do with this?...paper and chocolate dictating your worth...yesterday, i was at the register in macy's...and the salesgirl was joking with her co-worker..."just give me a date for valentine's, hell i don't care if we break up the next day"...i smiled at her and joked that valentine's and new year's were like the prom revisited each year...and she laughed in agreement...but somewhere deep inside she'd meant it...and i looked at her and thought...in the name of love?...not...screw you godiva!