Sweet Love Letters

Remember when you were in grade school and giving Valentine’s Day cards was such a big deal? Someone always got to decorate a box with construction paper, glue, and glitter. We’d cover it with pink and red hearts and anything else we thought made it more attractive. Then the teacher would cut a slit in the top and we’d all take turns poking our cards inside the box.

In this hurry-up, throw-away world, I don’t know if anyone takes the time to make their own cards or write a personal message to their loved ones anymore, but maybe they should. When was the last time you got a love letter? Or when was the last time you wrote one?

When Bill and I first met, he was living in Michigan and I lived in Atlanta. He wrote me some of the sweetest letters and, yes, I still have them. Almost every woman I know has a stack of letters somewhere tied up with a ribbon. There’s something very romantic about love letters and women love romance.

I bought the video Shall We Dance? and every so often I get it out, take the remote, and fast forward to the scene where Richard Gere comes up the escalator to see Susan Sarandon. He’s dressed in a black tux and holding a bouquet of roses. I don’t know how Susan Sarandon felt when she saw him, but I melt every time. And I’ve played that scene over and over and over…

There are other romantic movies that might be worth rewatching this year, if you are so inclined. Gone with the Wind, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and The Way We Were are a few of my personal favorites.

This Valentine’s Day, instead of giving her a box of chocolates (too fattening), why not take your sweetie out to dinner and then watch a chick flick with her. And if you really want to impress her, rent a tux and show up with a bouquet of roses, and write her a love letter.

Viva romance!