I scream, you scream for… not ice cream, because we scream while fighting. After all, why would we scream for frozen dairy products? Everyone fights. The world is a cacophony of random shouting. Everyone wants to be heard over the din and forget that all the shouting is actually what is creating that dissonance. The only time people don’t fight is when they are being dishonest to themselves and others. We fight at home, office, while travelling. Actually, we are so passionate about fighting that it takes precedence over all other verbs. So much so that we have even dedicated a whole day to it: Valentine’s Day!
Now, there are other days too that can be considered days that we celebrate fighting, but February 14 is the most popular and officially anointed day to indulge in some combat. The self-appointed moral police fight to ensure we keep our culture intact, the rebels to ensure that we don’t. Those in the centre, meanwhile, are worried about more important matters.
But as you know: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”. And so do those in the centre. And who wouldn’t if they too had the same pressures? These centrists’ daily routine is appropriately termed a grind for they are ground into paste. But they are so passionate that they still arise from their ground ashes to fight.
What is love but an expression of passion and thus fighting is the ultimate expression of passion. Lovers usually give each other red roses. This Valentine’s Day, I plan to get up and see red, paint the town vermilion and share that fiery scarlet emotion with others. First with my wife, for getting me the ‘perfect’ gift, then with the neighbours for being ‘nice’, then with my co-passengers on the train for ‘not’ invading my space like they usually do and then with my colleagues (they are so ‘perfect’ that they get on my nerves).
Don’t agree with me? Let’s fight.
How’s the josh? There is no discussion or talk of ‘hosh’. Passion is more popular than consciousness. That’s why they say love is blind. And in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. But that’s beside the point.
So what is the point?
The point is that this Valentine’s Day get angry at everything, lash out at everyone, disregard all other opinions, insult all rules, don’t be patient and don’t overlook any slip-up. Basically, just scream, rant, shout. Ensure that you envelope everyone in that hate that you have so preciously guarded inside.
Remember, to misappropriate poet Charles Lamb, “Anger in its time and place; May assume a kind of grace; It must have some reason in it…” And everyone feels that theirs’ is the most just reason of all.
The history of Valentine’s Day goes back to a pagan fertility festival, Lupercalia. And what better than having anger as your child. Fertilise it, nurture it and then harvest it. It will take you far… to the graveyard. And I will see you on the other side; waiting to argue and fight there as well because I love you’ll so much.