So it's a pretty emotional time for me, what with only 4 episodes of Parks and Recreation left to air within the next week and a half. Oh my gosh. Just writing that down makes it sound WAY too close. I'm not gonna lie, I break down in tears about this every few days. The other day in the shower, I started thinking about how Mouse Rat is sure to perform "Bye Bye, Li'l Sebastian" one more time and I just lost it. Parks and Rec is so important to me, and on this sacred holiday, I wanted to talk about one of the reasons why, even though I talk about it a lot and have definitely written a blog about my platonic love for Ashleigh.
It's far too common to see women pitted against each other. This happens in television and life alike. I've heard that this is an oppressive tactic we are taught: that if we are pitted against each other, we won't want to fight for the genders to be treated equally. Whether that is true or not, there are certainly many situations where women are in competition with each other when there is no need for it to be so. (This is something I have heard Taylor Swift talk about when the media tries to pit her against other female pop stars; she just tells them to stop because there's room for multiple women to be successful.) We also live in a culture that seems to value romantic love above all other types of love.
Leslie Knope shows us how wonderful it is for women to celebrate women, to celebrate platonic love the day before a holiday that so heavily focuses on romantic love. As someone who has had basically no romantic love in her life, Galentine's Day is such a refreshing thing to see on my television. Leslie loves her lady friends, especially Ann, so hard, even through her romantic relationships. So often in life, people get lost in their significant others and forget how important friends are, and how great it is to spend time with them. Leslie loves Ann just as hard when Ben comes into her life, and Ann loves Leslie through all the guys in her life. They vocalize their love often, and they reinforce that by constantly showing that they have each other's backs and doing thoughtful things for each other (because love is a verb, kids). In my opinion, this is what we should all aspire to. I'm sure romantic love is great, but nothing really compares to sitting in a room of ladies you can be completely yourself around, eating waffles.
That's what I did today: Celebrated Galentine's Day (for the first time!) with ladies whom I love and can be my awkward, quirky, slightly crazy self around. We had waffles and bacon (and eggs for those who are into that sort of thing) and mimosas and just sat around talking for about 6 hours. We did a "Blind Date with a Book" exchange, where we each brought a book we love, wrapped it up, wrote a description, and each picked a book someone else brought. We had a lengthy discussion about bras and lost track of time in each other's company.
I can't pretend I never get sad and lonely and wish for romantic love and sometimes feel pathetic when people are sharing mushy stories about boys and I have none, but I do have some mushy stories about Ashleigh that are pretty great. It's a different kind of love, but it's no less worth celebrating. Thank you, Parks, for pushing ladies to celebrate ladies. Thank you, Devyn, Ashleigh, Katie, and Elizabeth for celebrating with me today (especially Devyn for hosting and cooking). Thank you to Kaci who wrote me a beautiful and sweet Galentine, which she timed perfectly to arrive today. And thank you to all the other beautiful people in my life who show me love. I've had a lot of trouble expressing love this past year and I haven't been easy to love, but I love you gals and hope to someday have a Galentine's with all the ladies I love.
Happy Galentine's Day, ladies!
BaCon 2015
