The Vow

I'm a romantic person. I am also thoughtful. Sometimes what could be considered romantic gestures become cliche. Take for example: giving a bouquet of flowers. Now it's done all the time. Flowers are a kind gesture of thanks, condolences, etc, but it's no longer really all that romantic. They are however, thoughtful if given with a specific message or reason, or on an occasion that normally wouldn't warrant such a gift. Give me a few minutes and I shall calculate how many of these out-of-the-norm moments I've given someone flowers. Ah, yes. Seven. Each bundle beautiful and unexpected.

After the very last time I had flowers delivered to someone, I vowed that I'd never give flowers as a gift again. A portion of this thoughts that lead to this decision dealt with the devastation I was dealing with but also, it was during a time when I started paying more attention to my carbon footprint.

Do you ever think about the carbon footprint of sending a bouquet of flowers to someone? Think about it. The flowers are first grown somewhere in South America or Africa. I would imagine various pesticides and other chemicals would be deemed necessary to keep the flowers growing their best. So at the start, you have chemically infested blooming buds. These flowers are then trimmed and sent somewhere where they can be arranged or wrapped for delivery to a flower shop. So the flowers fly to Minnesota where they are placed in a cooler inside of a flower shop. The florist then spends time designing the arrangement you've requested and wraps it up for safe delivery by car or van to your sweetie's place of residence. It doesn't stop there. Once the life of her flowers have left, she'll certainly toss them into her non-biodegradable plastic garbage sack that'll she'll bring out next Monday morning. From there, the garbage bag will be loaded into a truck that will drive around the city collecting other bags of trash just to end up at a landfill where it will take literally years for the bags to break down, therefore taking up an unnecessarily immense amount of space.

I don't have exact figures or calculations of just how much of an impact sending flowers is, but I think from the previous paragraph, you should have a fair idea that sending flowers isn't just a simple sweet gesture. And if for some reason you do still think that way, then you might just as well stop reading this right now.

So my vow was to never again get or send flowers for someone. I did decide that any wildflowers I might come across, I'd gladly snip a few and after they've lost their life, I'd set them in my compost pile in my backyard.

Valentine's Day is coming up and I can't stop thinking about the amount of money and resources get wasted on such a commercialized day when probably over two thirds of the world's population either doesn't want to have anything reminding them of their loneliness or they don't have the privilege of sending their sweetheart a dozen roses that cost over $80.

Some people I know say that they don't like thinking about how their actions have an impact on everything around them; they say that it's too depressing to think about all the things they're doing "wrong" and all the things that they'll no longer be able to do if they focus on reducing their carbon footprints. Well, to be honest, I think that's very selfish but also completely inaccurate. Sure, there's an adjustment period, but once you've gotten past that, you start feeling proud of the impact you're making.

A crush friend of mine is in a play next month. Though I'm sure some of her fans/friends will be waiting for her with flowers after the show, I have just enough time to learn how to make origami flowers to give her after her amazing performance. Still thoughtful and slightly less cliche. And what's more romantic than someone taking time to create something just for you?

UPDATE (February 26th, 2010):
My not-review of the play has been posted.
No origami flowers were made.
I am using some of my tactics on "How to Stop Liking Someone" and they're working.