This year, many of the Valentine’s Day clichés seem somewhat obsolete.
From the quiet confines of our homes, what today is giving rise to is less cheesy platitudes - and more a simple appreciation of LOVE, in its simplest, no-frills form.
Love - removed of all the pink fluffy paraphernalia - has become a delicacy that we feel more compelled to savour, both through the medium of togetherness, when possible, or quiet reminiscence when it’s not.
Unsurprisingly, this has afforded a new importance to both sentimentality and nostalgia. All that precious (sometimes inanimate-looking) evidence of love‘s existence, and of the relationships, travels, people, places and eras that cultivated it.
Such treasures and tidbits - be it an old wedding bouquet, a cherished locket or a childhood teddy - are receptacles of rich emotion, the value of which is more than the sum of those fragile, floral parts.
Yes, roses might be red by Valentine’s Day tradition, but these flowers - long dried and past their best - have more life and love in them than some of the freshest of blooms.
This is romance with heart, and it conquers all this Valentines Day, and beyond.
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