The romantic period.

I went to a Graduation today. Not mine (that day is expected to come, however, my recent grades beg to differ). Anyway, it struck me as quite amusing as an out-of-sight keyboardist tried her/his hardest to keep some sort of rhythm as about 20 awkward adults marched in synchronisation,, trying to keep ridiculous, old -fashioned head-wear on their heads as a baby screamed from somewhere in Row G.
If this wasn't comical enough, after the ceremony, everyone was asked to stand and sing the National Anthem. Well, the few that knew the words timidly began singing half-way through the second line of the song. It was a sad, sad sight. It half looked like a bad beginning of a Sleeping Beauty play, with the robes and head-wear. But it also looked odd, out of place. It struck me then, that in some instances, we seem to be clinging onto tradition, when it's clearly passed.
Another example is the looming of Valentine's Day. This got me to thinking about romance. When you hear the word 'romance', you, well, women, associate it with horse and carriage rides, love letters, and waking up in the middle of the night to the love of your life, throwing stones gently on your window (then you open your net curtains to see him standing in the middle of a dark, yet well lit road, raining of course).
Whereas, the most romantic it gets nowadays is a poke on Facebook or, if you're lucky, a Thornton's box of Chocolates. Is this sad? Maybe. But we brought it on ourselves with technology. We no longer can only have a dinner by candlelight, but we still strive for romantic simplicities like this. Romance has, for a long time, been described as 'dead'.
It's just like the cheesy graduation I attended, where upheld tradition came across as desperate and very ill-fitting. Our lucky generation get to enjoy soppy films on a wide screen, high definition TV, whilst eating a romantic meal thanks to the Microwave, but I'm starting to think that candles and typewriters would be a small price to pay for the effortless romanticness of the past.