By the time you swear you're his / Shivering and sighing,
And he swears his passion is / Infinite, undying,
Lady, make a note of this: / One of you is lying.
~Dorothy Parker
Time to haul out one of my favorite Dorothy Parker poems, which I had memorized by the time I was 18. My cynicism about "true love" runs so deep that I felt it even before I was ever truly "in love," which happened to me once and was full-blown before I even had time to recognize it for what it was. But that's another story.
My favorite persona, QBU (Queen Bitch of the Universe) went grocery shopping tonight and was spitting sparks by the time she got from her car to the automatic door. It was all those men coming out of the store carrying big bouquets of roses and heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and they all looked so darned proud of themselves, some of them even giving me that, "Aren't I a good husband/lover/boyfriend" smile.
Note: On the outside I look like a kindly old granny; on the inside, well . . . it was all I could do to keep QBU from snarling.
What the heck does it say to a loved one that you brought home - from the grocery store, no less - a scentless bouquet of red roses that you had to pick through to find the flowers that weren't dropping their petals yet? And really, who wants a box of Whitman's or Russel Stover's chocolates or, for that matter, Godiva chocolates that you picked up at Barnes & Noble?
As I put lettuce and tomatoes into my basket, QBU was hissing, "Probably the only day of the year they bring home flowers! Wife probably told him not to come home without them. She's just as bad as they are! What does she do for him, huh?! Where's the love, I ask you!"
Mostly I lke QBU. She kicks butt. And I am fortunate enough to know several couples - gay and lesbian and straight - who truly love each other and make their relationships work by showing that love. Today I salute them with a blown kiss - even if they just came out of Albertson's carrying that questionable cargo of love. Because really, I think there's nothing better in the whole wide world than love, lots of it, freely given and openly received.
Happy Valentine's Day, loved ones!