Vday, chocolate, and hallmark moms
Despite eschewing the crassness and compulsively false veneer of #vday, and despite the cold block of frozen water that passes for my heart (kidding! I know I’m a hopeless sap/softie)…I do have a soft spot for it in my own, weirdo way. (And if you unplug from the bs, I kinda like the exhortation to have random displays of love and affection.)
And, as with all my most long-winded ramblings, it’s mostly cuz of my mom.
We’re not an especially mushy people. But somehow, she’s always been the kind to celebrate — and send cards — for every conceivable hallmark holiday. I’d get these cards, with bits very firmly underlined multiple times (“TO OUR BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER” or something). And they would have nothing written in them other than “Dear Eliza” and “#loveMomandDad.”
So I’d look at them. And, sanctimonious in my youthful knowledge of all the things, I’d groan “uuuugh, whyyyy doesn’t she just *write* something, instead of sending these stupid cards?”
Of course, now that I think about it, must’ve been that she read every card in the store, looking for exactly the right one that conveyed just the right level of ham-handed Christian messaging (walk the straight and narrow, or else!), but also love (that beautiful daughter stuffs that never quite sat right with me). Sifting through all the corporate hallmark drivel to find exactly what she wanted to say, and how she wanted to say it.
(Tbh, gotta admit, this is pretty much exactly me every time I repost a bit from #nayyirahwaheed or anything on fb, tw, insta...)
Add to this the fact that my mom once sent me an entire seven-layer chocolate cake via fedex.** And considering that a very large majority of all the chocolate I’ve been given (on this day or any other), has been from my mom, it’s hard to be too mad about #vday.
So, here’s to reclaiming the saccharine and finding the poetry — or at least the #noms — in it along the way. ❤
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** Tho that was small compared to the home-cooked thanksgiving dinner, including sides, that she sent me. For all that we aren’t a huggy people, we get the food is love part right in our fam, for sure.
