Wake up early and tell the cat: today is Valentine's Day.
Cat: What festival is that?
Me: A festival that is said to have originated in ancient Roman times, and it is complicated to say...... In short, according to custom, on this day, people with affection should give each other chocolates, confess, give gifts, and invite each other to eat.
Cat: What is chocolate?
Me: You can't eat the kind of food I usually eat - cats get poisoned if they eat chocolate.
Cat: Oh, I'm not interested, was there chocolate in ancient Rome?
Me: No, the first people to eat chocolate are said to be the Mayans, and Europeans probably ate chocolate after the 16th century.
Cat: It seems like it's a made-up custom, and you humans often invent old customs to trick each other into spending money...... So what is a confession?
Me: It's one person who likes the other, so he tells the other person, "I like you."
Cat: Isn't that what I do every day? I just come over and rub you with my tail cocked every day and tell you "I like you." Isn't that something you can tell anytime, anywhere, so why do you have to tell it on Valentine's Day?
Me: Well, because human beings like it, it's not that simple...... Many human beings confess on Valentine's Day, which means that they hope to establish a one-to-one relationship from now on, reach a tacit understanding with each other, and form a state called "love" by human society......
Cat: It's complicated. What happens after entering this state?
Me: Then we can probably convey affection to each other, touch each other, and trust each other...... And then they fell in love with each other.
Cat: What is love?
Me: How do you say that? There is a Japanese gentleman named Yoshihiro Yamada, and I think it's good to say that the so-called openness to each other, unconditional trust in each other, and the state of giving and asking for each other is love.
Cat: It feels like it's a very interesting state - but I still don't understand, why do I have to pick this day?
Me: Because the festival atmosphere is more sufficient, people's psychology is more easily affected, and if you can't confess normally, maybe you will confess on this day......
Cat: I don't understand, confession is confession, isn't it just telling that you like the other person? What is confession, what is confession?
Me: Because there are many kinds of social relations in human beings. Confession is not so simple. It seems to be just a simple way to tell "I like you", but in fact, it implies "I hope you can have a relationship with me". If the other party refuses to respond to this invitation, it is the so-called confession failure, and it becomes a unilateral liking.
Cat: It's complicated. So your human confessions are also implicitly possessive? Is there nothing wrong with unilaterally liking them? Simply tell the other person, "I like you, it doesn't matter if you like me or not", and then wagging your tail and walking away?
Me: Well, a lot of people can't do that. After all, if you give your feelings, you also want to get a response. This is also the reason why many people are ashamed to confess.
Cat: You mentioned earlier that you want to have dinner and gifts?
Me: Human society often expresses its sincerity by eating and giving gifts, and giving the fruits of their labor. When the other party receives the gift, they will feel the sincerity more deeply......
Cat: I don't understand. Do people who previously liked each other like each other more by eating and receiving gifts, or do people who previously disliked each other like each other more by eating and receiving gifts?
Me: I'm not sure about that, but some people do: they control their liking a little bit and decide how much emotion they give back based on how much they give back......
Cat: Oh, like, if you give me more cat food, I'll rub you more, and if you give me a can to eat, and change the water diligently, will I lie on your lap?
Me: Not exactly...... After all, if human beings are fully concerned with giving back to love, it will seem very utilitarian, but love should not be too utilitarian...... So there's a little bit of a subtle dimension here, and I'm not sure about it...... Presumably, human beings want to achieve a state of complete and pure love, but they are afraid of being hurt, so they try to retreat and dare not confess......
Cat: I'm bored when I hear it...... As you said just now, the so-called love should be innocent, and love is unconditional giving and asking for each other.
But to get to this point, there are a lot of chaotic steps, and some customs, steps, and routines have to be invented to achieve it: you humans are really troublesome.
I'll tell you, I think it's actually very simple. For example, if I like you, I run over and rub you, and when I think you are safe, I lie on your lap and sleep.
It doesn't matter if you like me or not, I just like it.
If you happen to like me, we can rub each other and maybe roll around and scratch each other. If you don't like me, then I'll play on my own.
Isn't that simple?
According to what you have described to me before, modern human beings do not involve superstitious rituals, and many of them are invented by merchants to make money. I am optimistic that some human beings have been in the monetary society for a long time, and their feelings are treated as gifts and currency, and they have to be carefully used to save money.
It is necessary to repeatedly give and give the temptation to reach the realm of unconditional giving and asking for each other, which sounds like a detour.
How simple and happy it is to like each other, how comfortable it is to like each other, why is it so careful and trivial? Is it that liking this thing is linked to too many messy things, so that feelings start to be used, so everyone is afraid?
Humans are weird.
However, I still wish you a happy Valentine's Day, and I hope you can jump out of those messy steps and directly feel the simple happiness of liking people and being liked~