Valentine’s Day, like all modern holidays, has become a widely commercialized holiday, with the average amount spent on gifts increasing by $60 over the past decade.

Monetized love has always been very profitable for those that maintain a mile-wide foot stuck deeply and firmly in our behinds and their hands sewed into our pockets.

Anything that humans desire will be commercialized, as hijacking things that people want dearly will always lead to high profits, with love and intimacy being no exception. Commercialization took root in America in the 1840s, and now even those not romantically involved can take part in the holiday via “anti-valentine” merchandise, according to "Big Think."

In the 1840s, an American newspaper called The Public Ledger endorsed the holiday saying that people needed ‘more soul-play and less head-work’ and more opportunities that allowed for an ‘abandon of feeling.’ The meaning of ’valentine’ transformed from signifying a person to referring to "an object of exchange,” according to the article.

Now, imagine Black slaves on White folks' plantations being allowed to "exchange" Valentine trinkets, just after having their behinds brutally beaten for not picking the mandated sacks of cotton for that day. Ah yes, get your behind beaten into pulp and receive a Valentine trinket, both at the same time. Valentine, like all of White Folk’s Alice in Wonderland holidays is deeply rooted in advertising and injecting propaganda into the weak minds of conspicuous consumption, to essentially take advantage of our wallets.

Genuine Love is both contiguous and continuous. Thus, Genuine Love is Not just expressed on certain days of the year — birthdays, anniversaries and of course, Valentine’s Day. Genuine Love is expressed and demonstrated 24/7, throughout the year and it is true in sense and touch and not in lip service nonsense.

Valentine cards, candy and flowers are routinely sent out to friends, family and more, but why do we feel such a need to go above and beyond on this one day of the year?  It's because we do not express and/or demonstrate Genuine Love throughout the year. If we did, the need to extravagantly display our feelings Momentarily would not be emotionally necessary, and the holiday’s fakeness through commercialization would not be as great as it is.

What the point of this Opinion Piece really boils down to is this: We should not feel the need to ever go above and beyond when displaying our common humanity and genuine compassion, respect and love for each other. If we’re honest and truthful with each other and we all pulled together to show how much we all mean to each other, the commercialization of holidays would not be a problem.

It is an idealized view of the situation, but if not for ideals, what do we have to aspire to, especially in this lunatic age of Donald Trump? In addition to showing our love for others — or our lack of it — this Valentine’s Day, you must take some time to reflect on how you could let those around you know, particularly the less fortunate, that it’s not your mile wide foot stuck off in their behinds or your hands in their pockets. Show them that you are "thy brothers/sisters keepers" and therefore, you really do care about their welfare.

By K.C. Madison

UT – Austin, Texas