Editor's Note: Our friend author Suzanne White is back! She's come through with ideas for showing your beloved some gratitude at Valentine's Day. Her latest articles for About.com are Love in the Dragon Year, and the Chinese/Western Horoscopes and Outlook for The Year of the Dragon, 2012.
from Suzanne White:I arrive from Mars, tiptoe into someone's household on February 14th, conceal my skinny green self behind a heavy bedroom curtain and watch in gasping horror as they light candles all over their naked bodies, stick heart-shaped red candies onto their private parts or strew pure white lacey bed clothes with rose petals soaked in Chanel no. 5 -- or flavored with gin.
I wonder. What on Earth is this preparation for? Is it religious? Superstitious? Astrological? What?
As a self-respecting Martian, I tiptoe on back out to my cozy space ship and skip this visit to Earth. Too weird. But as an astrologer from Buffalo, New York and Paris, France, I am neither surprised nor horrified. I understand. This strewing and sticking and lighting of candles on naked bodies is about Valentine's Day. The day on which you try your damndest to seduce, entice and generally please your sweetheart.
Don't have a sweetheart? Get one fast. Only a few days left before the big day when you, too, can be wearing a matched set of silver candelabra on your belly button. If all else fails and you can't find a quickie sweetie, use your mom. She, at least, needs you.
Joking aside, I think Valentine's day needs more meaning. More weight. More human value. So...I propose that from now on we think of Valentine's Day as THANKSGIVING DAY FOR LOVERS.
Instead of offering flowers and chocolates or lighting candles around the bath tub or hiring that stripper, let us offer thanks to our lovers. On Valentine's day, let us set aside our differences. Vow not to bring up dicey subjects. Have a simple meal together and say a word or a few hundred words about how grateful we are to have shared the joys and sorrows of which we have both partaken. We don't have to go all religious about it either. Valentine's Thanksgiving Day is not about thanking some God or other. It's about thanking each other for the sheer pleasure of the many moments of true intimacy (sexual or on a holiday or at the movies) that we have had the luxury of sharing.
Presents? Yes. There should be presents. But ditch the chocolates, skip the candles and lose the rose petals. Instead, give your lover a present which they would never get for themselves. Something truly personal. Below you will find suggestions on how to thank your Valentine according to his or her astrological sign.
Remember, I am Suzanne White so this is about THE NEW ASTROLOGY™. In other words, you will read both of your lover's signs (Chinese and western) and then you will mix those two signs' favorite things in your mental blender (switch it on "high") and come up with the perfect method of saying THANK YOU DARLING to your favorite person in the whole wide world -- your significant other.
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