TRAUMA OF REJECTION RUNS DEEP ON VALENTINE'S DAY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 11, 1992                   TAG: 9201110086
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BEN BEAGLE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
TRAUMA OF REJECTION RUNS DEEP ON VALENTINE'S DAY
It's time for us to face the fact that the only real name holiday we have to look forward to immediately is Valentine's Day.
I know that Valentine's Day is a big time for the card, candy and flower people, but it doesn't do much for yours truly.
What kind of a holiday is it, for example, when the liquor stores stay open and government employees have to go to work?
I, for one, have never had a bit of fun on Valentine's Day, and I don't expect to have any this year - even if I stop by the liquor store on the way home.
In elementary school, when all the kids exchanged cards, mainly because the teacher threatened to maim anybody who did not, I always got these insulting valentines. Did little Amelia, the girl who changed pinafores twice a day, ever give me a card asking me to be her valentine?
No. And why is it that I feel to this day that Amelia kind of liked it when my evil cousin beat me up at lunchtime out by the see-saws?
Just for the record, my cousin beat me up without paying much attention to holidays, but the attacks on Valentine's Day seemed to hurt more than, say, being busted up on Groundhog's Day.
If I went to a psychiatrist about my problem with Valentine's Day, you know what the result would be:
"Bennie shows sociopathic resentment and hostility for Valentine's Day, almost assuredly because of trauma associated with the exchange of cards when he was very young.
"This also is undoubtedly the reason that he develops strong symptoms of aggravated hysteria whenever he is confronted with a red candy box shaped like a heart.
"Add all of this to deep feelings of insecurity, enhanced by the physical attacks of an evil cousin, and it is easy to understand his hysterical dislike of Valentine's Day.
"Although the patient is now well along in years, the memories of peer rejection, especially in the instance of a little girl called Amelia, and of being badly beaten in her presence, combine to make this guy pretty sick, if you ask me."
Therefore, I am going to save the money I would spend on a shrink and just go on resenting Valentine's Day and all that it stands for.
I mean, it just makes sense to feel that way about a holiday like that.
It makes you like Washington's Birthday - never mind all of those people wildly trying to sell cars and refrigerators.
Just get out of here with those soupy cards. OK?
And take that, Amelia, wherever you are, and now likewise along in years.
You had your chance, sweet lips.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB