Don’t send me flowers, I will still love you
Yesterday I woke up with a heaviness of heart that I did not understand. I am generally a cheerful person so when I wake up with a cloud obstructing my sunshine, I worry. I do not like to face the world feeling less than 100 per cent so I decided to first sort my mood before stepping out of the safety of my home.
When I switched the TV on, it did not take me long to get to the root of the problem. Every two minutes there were Valentine’s Day adverts. The worst of the lot for me is the one adverting The Bachelor TV series which starts on Valentine’s Day in South Africa. The advert has every annoying cliché about love you can think of. From love at first sight to old couples still so much in love to kiss all over the streets. Trust me, I am not a hater and I do not hate love; if anything I am a hopeless romantic. But even my romanticism could not divert me from how unrealistic the images the media presents to us are.
The unfortunate bit of this false presentation is that a majority of social media users have bought it. That is why couples will go to lengths to project a picture perfect family on social media even though they can hardly stand each other.
In the olden movies the woman would be shown running after her husband because he had forgotten to give her a goodbye kiss, today a woman will beg her partner for a minute for the perfect couple selfie although they are each on their way to meet their side dishes. This, I have witnessed first-hand by the way.
Couples who have not been together in like forever will suddenly show up “twinning”, sharing meals or spoiling each other with gifts on timelines.
My dear single sister do not pity yourself because of this, it is not real. I have friends who love to send me flowers and presents on such days because they truly love me and want to make me happy. But I have come to believe that by continuing to accept my friends’ benevolent gestures, I am participating and propagating the silly charade that love looks like The Bachelor advert.
So this year, dear friends please do not send me flowers or present I will still know you love me without them.
