VALENTINES DAY, BAH HUMBUG!
Opinion By: Edwin L. Crammer, CPA – I know those last two words are reserved for Christmas in the story of the Christmas Carol, but think about it. Aren’t those two words more appropriate when it comes to talking about Valentine’s day.
Valentine’s day is the day when all of us are asked to stop being self absorbed, cynical, not caring about others and a few more appropriate words to show love and respect for all of those around us. So the other three hundred and sixty four days of the year, we can go back to being that obnoxious individual who only cares about his or her personal needs and neglects the rest of us.
Valentines day is named after St. Valentine a third century Roman Catholic Saint whose life was associated with love. He died on February 14th and that’s why we celebrate Valentine’s day on that date. As this is not a column on history, I am not going to go into details here about his life and why his name is supposed to invoke romance. I just think you would like a little background about the holiday. As with most holidays that are based on one or more religious events from the past, most people do not consider the religious aspect of the holiday. Over the years, this holiday like other similar holidays, the celebration of the day based on that prior religious conception has become universal.
So what happens? We all become romantic on Valentine’s day and then go back to being our same old selves the next day. But just think! If we treated all of those around us each day of the year as we do or try to do on Valentine’s day, wouldn’t this be a better world.
Maybe there would be fewer divorces, maybe there would be fewer wars, maybe Congress would put aside their differences and actually accomplish something meaningful.
You know it is not going to happen, but we could dream, couldn’t we.
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TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT: I RECENTLY MADE THIS INTERESTING OBSERVATION! My wife and I took a high end cruise into the Eastern Caribbean, several weeks ago. After two days of cruising, I noticed something that seemed strange to me. After discussing this with my wife, who noticed the same phenomenon I was able to make this interesting observation.
Being a high end cruise, most of the other passengers were either retired or close to retirement age. There were no children on this cruise. What I was able to notice after observing the other passengers on the ship for two days, was that at least fifteen percent of the male passengers were accompanied by a companion of at least twenty years or more younger than them this could be called or referred to as “Trophy Wives”.
In my past encounters with groups of older individuals I had never come across so many couples engaged in this type of relationship, in one place. Of course I had seen and read stories about these types of relationships in the press and on the screen, but the sheer number of these types of couples in one place, seemed highly unusual to me.
What was also intriguing was that all of the men that I had observed, with younger companions, had a full head of white hair. Not a single baldy in the crowd. Then I thought, doesn’t it seem strange that if these older guys had chosen a companion or wife that was so much younger than themselves, why did they not attempt to look younger also., At least by dying their hair brown or black, and doing other things to try to make them look younger.
My conclusion was that by not trying to look younger, they were in fact making a statement that said. ” Hey folks look at this old coot who was able to land a young good looking wife”. Sort of a statement of Power. What do you think?
To contact Edwin L Crammer e-mail him at Edwin@edwinlcrammercpa.com
