Valentine's Day...Bunk or Beautiful?

-So, I guess I'm one of those guys who thinks that Valentine's Day is a "manufactured" holiday for the sake of selling cards, flowers, candy and restaurant dinners. I'm like every other guy who grumbles about being shamed into celebrating the love I have for those in my life by spending money on something. Really though, I usually feel somewhat ashamed each year when the holiday reminds me that I should do this more often on my own.

Here's the big question. How did this turn into a day when men are supposed to shower women with gifts and feel guilty if they don't. Shouldn't a woman feel equally ashamed if she doesn't lavish her man with power tools or 6-packs of Bud Light?

Valentine's Day seems to have gone from a day when I decorated shoe boxes in grade school that my classmates (and hopefully the cute girl in the next aisle) would put "be my valentine" cards in...(by the way, if you got a really big one from the cute girl...then you were "going steady" or something)...to a day as an adult when you say to yourself..."I guess I better go by the Hallmark store and pick up a card and some chocolate strawberries before they're all gone".

Luckily, I have married a woman who doesn't get too wound up about the whole thing. Boy, I love her. I'm glad I got her that card. I wish I would have taken her out to dinner...well, there I go...feeling guilty again.