February 09

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Men, Show Your Love This Valentine’s Day By Looking Foolish

Posted by on February 9, 2015 in The Lighter Side | 105 Comments

post image VD

Since the dawn of time, man has feared Valentine’s Day. I’m a journalist, so you can trust my facts on this. And because I’m a man, you can also trust me when I tell you our fear isn’t because we don’t want to express feelings of love and romance; it’s because we are afraid of looking stupid while doing so. This fear has been documented as far back as prehistoric times, in a pair of cave drawings paleontologists say depicts a caveman named “Glork” trying to court a cavewoman.

Image one: To demonstrate his masculinity and win a cavewoman’s affections, Glork fights a saber-toothed lion

Image two: Glork is eaten

Millions of years later, though the risk of being eaten by a large predator is relatively low (not counting cougar attacks), men still fear that their attempt to express love could lead to a fate worse than death: Embarrassment.

That’s because many men instinctively think of expressing love the same way they do everything else — as a competition. And as with any competition, there is a winner and a loser.

Lose a car race or bar fight? You can still look manly doing it. But lose your dignity by coming up with a really lame poem…

Without you,

I am but a wingless bee

Fat and buzzless

For all eternit-yy

… and most men would rather cover themselves in A1 Steak Sauce and jump into a lion’s cage at the zoo. As a result, men everywhere are panicking because we know that impressing the women in our lives isn’t easy. We realize that you are complicated creatures who need more than a physical connection when it comes to romance; you also need an emotional outlet.

Men, on the other hand, just need an outlet located near a television.

Metaphorically speaking, even if romance was a TV channel, and suddenly every station on the planet went out except for that one, it still wouldn’t help men be more romantic because, let’s face it: They would curl up in a fetal position and require regular changing.

It’s not that we don’t want to be romantic. We just have a hard time allowing ourselves to become THAT vulnerable again so soon after the Super Bowl.

Ironically — and what most men fail to realize — is that oftentimes a man’s willingness to look foolish for the sake of love IS the gesture women find most romantic. In fact, the more foolish your attempt, the greater the romantic impact. It took me a long time to figure out this love/foolishness equation which, mathematically speaking, makes me the most romantic man on the planet.

That being said, men shouldn’t confuse this kind of gesture with gestures such as howling like a wolf or wearing a “Free Mustache Rides” T-shirt, which will simply make you look like a fool — and likely elicit the appropriate gesture in response. (Or inappropriate, depending on your point of view.)

When it comes to Valentine’s Day, however, DO go ahead and write that terrible love haiku:

When I see your face

I really want to kiss it

And I like your butt

Or plan a Flash Mob for your secret crush at her work place, even though you can’t dance and having your fellow inmates suddenly start twerking in the prison yard could get someone shot. (Disclaimer: The same goes for twerking anywhere, actually.)

Or, if you’ve decided she’s The One, go ahead make that proposal by hiring a team of midget acrobats to suddenly show up and spell “Marry Me” while sunbathing on your favorite nude beach.

Men, the bottom line is that however you decide to express it, say “I Love You” this Valentine’s Day by facing your fear and showing your willingness to look foolish for love.

Let’s be honest, it’s not like acting foolish is something we don’t normally do anyway when there isn’t romance involved.

 

 

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Ned Hickson is an award-winning humor columnist for Siuslaw News, a small Oregon newspaper where the motto is:

YOUR DEPENDABLE SOURCE FOR LOCAL NEWS. TWICE WEEKLY. UNLESS WE LOSE COUNT.

Ned has been awarded “Best Local Column” from both the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2002, he took his self-syndicated column online to newspapers and, by 2003, received his first measure of national success: A threatening letter from the Velcro© Corporation for not using the “©” symbol when making fun of its product. That same year, he became a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists — mostly for his protection.

Currently, his weekly column appears in dozens of newspapers in the U.S. and Canada as a syndicated feature for News Media Corporation. He writes about daily life and important social issues, such as glow-in-the-dark mice and injuries caused by overheated pickles. His first book, Humor at the Speed of Life, is a collection of his most popular columns (as opposed to the kind he usually writes) during his 16 years as a newspaper columnist.

Ned lives on the Oregon coast with his wife, four children, two dogs, a cat and entirely too many seagulls.

Blog: http://nedhickson.com/

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