Here IS Your Flowers

What better day to find love all around us than Valentine’s Day. The day the world is filled with flowers and balloons and stuffed bears. It’s a focal point in movies and the high point in novels, poems and travel commercials.

It’s a chocolate dipped, wine infused, flower laden holiday. And that’s lovely.

And just because you’re not on the receiving end of such largess doesn’t mean you can’t be a good sport about it. It has to make you smile when you see the nervous 19 year old on the train clutching a bouquet of flowers from the drug store; or the hero husband in line at the flower shop earlier in the week ordering his $175 bouquet. Flash back to school parties and little cards that folded in littler envelopes and you agonized over which message to send which classmate, because you had to exchange with everyone. Remember that? lol

If you’re receiving notes and chocolates and flowers. Enjoy.

And if you’re not. It’s a great spectator sport.

In the cab this morning, the driver wished me a happy Valentine’s Day and proceeded to tell me that he had just heard from his girlfriend. “She wants them strawberries, a box of chocolates and a $30 bottle of champagne! And she wants me to drop it off!” And he laughed. “I think she has a bigger plan. I think I’ll stay. I think maybe I’ll be getting married one off these days.” There was something about the exchange that had me worried he’d be surprised, and hurt. I got the feeling she really did want him to drop it and go. I think he’s a bit naive. And I think she’s mean.

So as I thought about the poor bastard that would likely work all day for tips for that $30 bottle of champagne, I was feeling bad. Not a great way to start Valentine’s Day—faced with it’s manipulative underside. And then I got on the train . . .

On the train every morning, nearly everyone is looking down . ..at their phone or tablet. They are scrolling, swiping, texting, typing, reading, listening. . . . their device in their lap, eyes downcast. A detached look.

Not today. Not this one guy. He was 80 if he was a day. He held his phone straight out in front of him, directly in front of his face. At eye level. And while I didn’t mean to read his screen, I nearly couldn’t help it. With one finger, he had typed out a simple message “here IS your flowers” and with one finger he was adding flower emojis to the screen. He had at least six flower emojis up there. And before he added the next one, his index finger hovered above the screen, as if deliberating. He was being very intentional about the number of flowers. .. . .(and I think maybe he had to find the emoji all over again, each time) .

Tap, flower, pause, smile.

Tap, flower, pause, smile.

Tap, flower, pause, smile.

9 flowers, in neat rows of three.

And a longer pause . . .

A heart. After careful though, and a long look at his keyboard to find it, he added a heart to the message. And he smiled.

Tap, heart, pause, smile.

Pause . ..tap, heart, pause, smile.

Nine flowers and three hearts. All hand picked. All on a screen that looked more like a toddler’s gaming device than a slick smart phone.

Given the enhanced point size of the settings on his phone his ‘here IS your flowers” message, with the aforementioned flowers (and hearts) took up the entire screen of his phone.

I was two rows behind him. I could have seen it from 200 feet away.

Each emoji, each word, each moment, was prefaced by a pause, and a careful thought. And each tap of the screen made him smile. It was lovely to watch.

There was nothing off hand or casual about this message. This isn’t a message that would leave her wondering what he means or how he feels.

She knows this guy. And he doesn’t share his heart or send messages without careful thought.

His message was filled with cartoony roses and puffy, red hearts. And he meant every word.

I saw dozens of roses and balloons and teddy bears all day. Some were surely heartfelt, others were motivated by as many reasons as there are roses.

But his message, “here IS your flowers” was my favorite of the day. His head and heart were together in his message.

She’s a lucky lady.