Free Love

It is a rare moment that the powers-that-be of Harvard College grant sanction to fun. As should be expected, the people in University Hall and the Office of the Registrar are primarily concerned with prolonging our academic agony; legislation friendly to our social lives is unusual indeed. This time, however, Harvard seems to have goofed up. In the guise of honoring conspicuously dead Presidents, the College has accidentally encouraged free love by giving us a three-day Valentine's Day weekend.

Harvard students generally can get away with a very minimalist observance of Valentine's Day. When the "romantic" holiday approaches on, say, a Wednesday night, it's very easy to stay home and study as usual if you're unattached. Or, if you're seeing someone and you're not especially creative, it could conceivably suffice to send along a candy-gram and call it a night. But when Valentine's falls on a Saturday night--for the first time in ten years--avoidance tactics become a recipe for disaster. Mix that in with the three-day weekend, add the teaspoon of truth that nobody has that much real schoolwork this early in the semester, bake for half an hour at 350 degrees, and you'd better be seriously prepared with something sweet for your sweetheart--or at least have made other plans. This year, you can run, but you can't hide.

As usual, Valentine's Day weekend will be a feast of delights for some and a test of endurance for others. As many writers have noted on these pages, love on this campus can be hard to find; when found, it can be even more of a challenge to find the time to enjoy it. This year, whether the long weekend seems like a blessing or a burden, it can at least give us time to have fun, with someone special or just with good friends--and to reflect on where we'd like to spend next Valentine's Day, and with whom. After all, we're ambitious people.

Over the weekend, raise a glass of the beverage of your choice to this Valentine's Day and next year's, and to that happy future age when all students can celebrate Valentine's Day in the manner that they choose, free from both schoolwork and stigma. (And while we're at it, let's hope for world peace.)