Loveless on Valentine's Day

Few things in the world beat fresh floral arrangements and I have been able to indulge in actually stopping and smelling the roses more actively in the last couple of days because I've seen them at every turn. Initially, I was lost until I had my Aha! Moment. It's almost that day, the one day called Valentine's Day. I've never really considered it to be a big deal, but for some people, it is indeed a big deal and there's no use convincing them otherwise. Days before Valentine's Day approaches, some people either start to fall physically ill or check out mentally because they do not have a special person in their life to share the day with. A special day to show love or celebrate love seems to me like the biggest hoax ever cooked up. Why do we need a day to show love to the people in our lives? Reading through some of my social media feed, it seems like some people are actually losing sleep and super unhappy about today. If that's you, read on...

In March last year, I went to Jamaica with two of my sisters and a few friends for a couple of days. While there, I bought a bottle of rum for my brother as a souvenir. Upon my return, I mailed the rum to his address in Chicago and waited a few days for him to call me and announce that he had received the bottle. Two weeks later over a phone call, I finally asked if he had received the package and he said he had not. I mailed the package via Priority Mail and at this point the delivery was way overdue. Nothing had been returned back to my address and the concierge in his building did not have the package and it certainly was not in his mailbox either. I then asked him to recite his address to make sure I had the correct address and then I discovered my mistake. Now, the numerical portion of his address was '5650' but I thought it was '5600' so I mailed it to the latter. Well, turns out the 5600 building has an apartment number identical to his and the package got delivered to that address. At this point, it was almost three weeks since the package had been delivered.

My brother then decided he would go to the 5600 building to make some inquiries. He got there and after some conversation with the concierge he was directed to the apartment that was the same number as his. He knocks on the apartment door and crazy lady answers. He told her he thought a package might have been wrongly delivered to her. Crazy lady said she had the package and had kept it. Now, why would anyone keep a strange looking package that clearly belonged to someone else in their apartment for three weeks? I thought the proper thing was to return it back to the post office or leave it in the mailbox with a note for the post master. My brother and I were shocked and amused by crazy lady and laughed our heads off at her antics. I'm not sure why I thought about this story, but it brings me to an important question. Which would you rather be? Crazy or 'loveless' on Valentine's Day? To feel unloved today is quite a shame because no one really is unloved. Try dying today and you'll be amazed at the love. People will speak all sorts of niceties about the person you were, even though they may not all be true (but I digress). Even the homeless man is missed when he dies. If this does not cheer you up, then hopefully knowing you are loved by The Harriet Project might do the trick. So, for what it is worth, Happy Valentine's Day.