LivSimpl

What a simple Valentine’s Day tradition has taught me about life

My wife and I aren’t huge fans of Valentine’s Day. It’s fine and all, but we don’t particularly like to go overboard. Still, it’s an excuse to go out and have some fun and we’re always up for that.

Our Valentine’s tradition started the second year of our marriage. A bit strapped for cash (as newlyweds tend to be), we decided to do a blatantly low-budget Valentine’s. Instead of going to a fancy restaurant, we went to The Belgian Waffle and Omelette Inn. A step down from Denny’s, this local dive is open 24 hours and sports vinyl booths with lumpy seats and bad lighting.

We’d driven past the place for months, always commenting that we’d have to eat their sometime. It turns out that Valentine’s Day is the perfect occasion. I order the Belgian waffle with whipped cream, ice cream and strawberries. Yes, it’s more breakfast (or dessert) than dinner, but it’s a special occasion, right? My wife usually opts for some kind of omelette. This way we feel justified in eating at this particular restaurant.

After dinner we head to Walmart (normally, I try to avoid shopping there) where we set a small budget, usually $5-7 with which to purchase each other a gift. It makes gift giving an exercise in creativity: the first year my wife got me shoe insoles and I bought her an exceptionally tacky Dale Earnhardt calendar.

She hung it proudly in our apartment and I walked with a new spring in my step. It was wonderful.

These gifts even inspired a song which my wife wrote, composed and recorded for me. I still have it on my iPod and listen to it regularly. Someone wrote a song for me! It makes me smile every time I think about it.

I mention these things because I think they serve as a good example of not needing to be overly extravagant to have a good time. A lot of people (me included) feel pressure to always out-do some unspecific standard that’s been set. Why? I think if I had a billion dollars in the bank I think I’d still go to The Belgian Waffle and Omelette Inn for Valentine’s Day. Of course, if I were a billionaire I’d tip a lot better and I’d probably order two helpings of the strawberry and ice cream covered waffle, but I don’t think much else would change.

I’m not saying that getting dressed up and going out to eat is a bad thing - hardly. In fact, we went out to a nice restaurant for my wife’s birthday this month. But I don’t think high-cost, flashy and often expensive outings/experiences have a corner on happiness and good times. One of my wife’s family’s most talked about, and laughed about, vacations was a “never-ending road trip” to the Grand Canyon. Another was when they drove out to help the victims of the Oklahoma tornadoes. But instead of heading back toward Colorado when they were done with the clean-up, they were 20 miles away from the Missouri border before they realized they were going the wrong direction. All great memories (now, anyway. I’m told the Grand Canyon trip nearly resulted in a complete brawl) and all done with a family simply sitting in a car together.

I would go so far to say that if you can find fulfillment in simpler, more fundamental things you’ll be happier more often and have a greater satisfaction with life. Do you need a fancy Valentine’s dinner to be happy with your significant other? Or could a take-out Chinese picnic on your family room floor bring you just as much joy?

I’d love to hear your comments and any similar stories you’d be willing to share. Please leave word in the comments or send me an e-mail: LivSimpl at gmail.

Thanks for reading!

LivSimpl

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Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 5:40 pm and is filed under Holidays, Simple Pleasures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.