How do I buy thee?
February 14th, 2008 | by Paul |How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
Just think, instead of writing those famous lines, Elizabeth Barrett Browning could have just bought her husband a lot of crap.
Today is Valentine’s Day and I’m going to end up sounding like one of those cranky anti-romantics. I’m not. Crank up the “Casablanca” and some Edith Piaf and I’m all sorts of mushy. I just don’t like to be told love requires expensive gifts.
“But Paul,” those of you who care and know my first name might say, “What if people want to express their love through presents? Why you gotta get all high and mighty on them?”
Well, according to the following ABC news article, people aren’t buying presents because they want to. They’re buying them so their sweeties don’t get pissed at them.
I have no idea what’s going on with the blog program today, so here’s the link. Cut and paste time, brother.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4279478&page=1
Here’s a quote from the story:
The closer it gets, the greater the likelihood that the giver will pay more, “but only when it’s a means of avoiding a negative outcome,” Mogilner said. “It’s not that they are willing to pay more for a fabulous gift right before [Valentine’s Day], but they are willing to pay more to avoid a negative situation.”
Oh, how romantic.
During the 2001 recession, Valentine’s shoppers still planned to spend an average of $84.20 to prove the Beatles wrong on the ability to purchase love. Those aged 18 to 24 planned to spend $183.80. Men planned to spend $122 and women planned to spend $50.
Here’s the link to that International Mass Retail Association study:
http://retailindustry.about.com/library/weekly/01/aa010203a.htm
But is that spending limited to those in lurve? Hell, no! Meet Anti-Valentine’s Day!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17011635
That’s a link to a 2007 story about the growing market of greeting cards and the like for people who don’t like Valentine’s Day and have no special someone.
It’s like Butterball found a way to market turkeys to people who don’t celebrate Thanksgiving.
Either way, grab your sweetie, crank some Otis Redding, try a little of the old tenderness, take a walk, hold a hand, kiss, snuggle, read poetry, tell ‘er (or ‘im) you love ‘er (or ‘im) and don’t ever ever ever let anyone convince you that love means never having to say “I didn’t get you anything.”
2 Responses to “How do I buy thee?”
By Sandi on Feb 14, 2008 | Reply
I was awaiting your Valentine’s anticonsumerism post.
I actually half agree and half disagree. I think money is well-spent if it’s spent on a memory and not flowers that will die in a week or chocolate that will lead to poor body image.
My husband and I are going to take a couple’s cooking class. Something like that, or taking a surprise flight to visit your long-distance sweetie, or spending money on a nice steak to cook a romantic dinner. That’s V-Day money that’s worth it.
By Paul on Feb 15, 2008 | Reply
Quit making really, really good points that contradict what I’m saying.
All those things sound really, really cool, by the way. Where was the class?