I agree, and don't feel that these days people suggest we need to celebrate are any different to any other day.
Valentine's Day is every day in my relationship, meaning we treat each other the right way everyday. I've been told it's mean of me not to celebrate that day...I respond with, it's mean of you not to celebrate that day every day, if I can be bothered responding at all.
This. Each day is a gift. So many take it for granted. Put things off. Of course, life isn't always simple, but it's a simple choice to live intentionally. What's the point of deferring the experience of life in the present? I don't get it.
My wife and I don't do Valentine's Day either for that very reason. Every day is Valetine's Day! That criticism you mention just seems like an unthinking, conditioned response. Herd-like behaviour. Where's the individual there? Buried under reactionary platitudes...
It's a bit like people who freak out when the conversation centres around death. Grief and respect for a specific person who has passed is different. But when talked about abstractly, for some people it's a visceral response: "Ugh! I don't like to think about that..." It's coming for you anyway, and talking about it freely can make you appreciate the precious short time we have living!
What's that old quote? "I don't despair for those who have died, but for those who never really lived." Something like that...
Yep, on everything in your comment.
People are...well, I guess just people. Weirdos mostly, me included. Lol.