Valentine's waste

It's just one of these days again that have been completely commercialized, selling whatever they can as Valentine-item. Most of it looks like rubbish to me already on the store shelves. And tomorrow everything unsold goes to the dump, big sigh. I have only known Valentine's Day for a few years and I don't think too much of it. My husband cooked dinner last night and he got heart-shaped buns for his sandwiches today. We'll have a little treat from the Dutch bakery across the street after dinner tonight. End of it. At work, we had a Valentine's lunch today where every staff member brought a lunch and we swapped them between us. Since it was lunch and lunch to me is a meal I didn't think the packaging mattered so I took my lunch in reusable containers and arranged it at school on a plate, with a napkin that I cut into a heart-shape. From most of the ladies though the lunch came in lots of packaging, boxes, paper and plastic bags in red and/or with hearts on them, from the dollar store. I can't even tell you what the content was. Oh well, at least the boxes can be reused. 

The Story of Stuff has a nice blog post (http://www.storyofstuff.com/blog/?p=674) about the most common  Valentine's day items: flowers, chocolate, gold and diamonds. Most of them are produced under hazardous conditions and with child labour. The blog post therefore states solutions and campaigns aiming to change this.   

Again, we don't have to live in abstinence of everything but we should be careful of how much and what we acquire. Especially in a relationship there's much more to it then just big gifts. Michelle Obama says laughter is what keeps a relationships alive and going, not taking yourself to serious when you are with your better half. I think my hubby and I are pretty good with that, too. We can't buy happiness but we can create it ourselves. That reminds me of a recent story that caused us lots of laughter: My hubby left his wallet at a friend's place, without intention of course, and did not pick it up until a week later. His friend said to him, "you really live a frugal life!"