Valentine’s Day is coming up soon, and only a couple of months after we made it through several weeks of New Year’s Resolutions. These two traditions tend to polarize people toward a “love it!” or “hate it!” attitude.

Realizing that both are valid opinions is imperative.  This 2018 New Year, I saw a wave of people who seemed to have strong opinions against making resolutions and, certainly, cynicism regarding Valentine’s Day is nothing new. However, there’s no reason to guilt-trip people who think this way — who cares?

Valentine’s Day brings with it several weeks full of hearts rendered in vivid pinks, purples and reds, representing endless reminders that you should be in love with someone. There are many reasons this can be an irritating, or even depressing, part of the year for people (and I won’t even delve into how this affects various LGBTQIA+ demographics). Disliking a holiday is not a problem that needs to be fixed in a person.

If you need an example of what I mean, look no further than the plethora of Christmas movies out there. How many endless films make losers, antagonists, or villains out of people who happen to dislike the winter holiday? Need I remind everyone that the point of A Christmas Carol is not that Scrooge hates Christmas, but that he is greedy to the point of harming others? Unfortunately, that message has been skewed into a trope that entirely misses the point, simply because Dickens happened to set his story during Christmas.

Holidays — specifically those focused on a particular worldview — aren’t for everybody. For some, they’re a fun way to add a bit of variety to life, as well as celebrate and have a good time. For others, they’re stressful reminders of hard times, foul memories or the shallowness of commercial capitalism.

Speaking of commercialization — I wish strength to those of you in the customer service sector that have been managing new V-Day merchandise since January.