Well. This is a first for me. A pleasant St. Valentine's Day. In my 22 years on this planet, I have been single for all but two of these days. Of those two Valentine's Days, only this one has had me in a good mood. The other was three years ago, and Anglee and I spent that entire evening cheering up her friend Natalie whose boyfriend just dumped her. Boy. That was exciting. This year is a little different. I got to see Holly this weekend, which had its ups and downs, but there were significant revelations and things are better for it, and we're going out tomorrow night. Ideally, we'd be doing something today, but things are what they are. Still gave her a little something, so really it will have been V-Day for three of the the five days between Saturday and Tuesday.
One of the reasons I'm ok with all of this, is because I have a cognisant awareness of the basis for this holiday. I know the story of St. Valentine, for example. This whole mess goes back to correspondance he had with, I believe, his jailer's daughter? Anyway, it is said that he and a woman had been writing love letters while he was in prison for whatever. And then three miracles and a canonisation later, and he's a saint. Then, it seems, some well educated, and most likely Catholic in origin, person saw this as being marketable. A day for love and cards and roses and candy and jewelry. Marketing genius, really. Some of my friends had, in an effort to cheer me from my gloom that I usually wear on this day, mentioned that this day is supposed to be about everyone you love, family, friends, not just the girl I wanted to be with. And while that might be the original intent, I am still inundated with displays of happy coupledom that make me ill from 1) disgust at the ability of humanity to be duped, and 2) disgust at the overwhelming display of happy lovers based in jealousy.
But all of that is in the past. I dropped a rose off on Holly's doorstep for her to find, which she did, as my small gesture of rememberance of the day. And, of course, I have told her multiple times that I love her. And now I'm looking at an evening filled with Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. Which is a pretty cool game, by the by.
sorry it had to be you this year, bro
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1 comment:
ooh, ooh, can i help explain this vady thing to you?
See, the church officials did not much care for the Lupercalia festival. It was a day celebrating the twins (R&R), fertility, and the harvest. Ther were ceremonies to protect against curses and infertilty. One of the ways to celebrate Lupercalia was for the young men to draw names of women. The men would take the women as their love for that day, maybe longer (not an expert here). Can you imagine the clergy liking a lover lottery? I can't either. So they made up the St Valentine story. In the grand tradition of the Church to pervert pagan customs and holidays into christian traditions and holy days.
So...if you put my name in a jar and drew it out on Feb 15, I'd be your love for the next year. How's that sound?
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