Valentines Day

So, that was Valentines Day.... Did you get a card? Chocolates? Flowers? Apparently, if you are a bloke, in the UK, you are 85% more likely to have received a valentines card, seeing as that is the proportion of cards bought by women.... If men's valentines day shopping habits are anything like their Christmas present shopping habits are reputed to be, I guess there were still some garages and late night shops, selling the last of their cards and chocolates to some guys in deep trouble, on their way home at about 9 pm yesterday evening....

So, what's it all about? Well, you can look it up on Wikipedia if you are interested, like I did. It seems strange that a day apparently celebrating romantic love is associated with various guys called Valentine, who were executed for their christian faith.

According to one source, St Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by the Roman Emperor Claudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing the blind daughter of his jailer. No connections whatsoever with sentimental love there, so appropriate lore has been embroidered in modern times to portray Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law attributed to the same emperor, allegedly ordering that young men remain single. The Emperor supposedly did this to increase the size of his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail. In an embellishment to the original story, on the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he wrote the first "valentine" himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as his beloved, as the jailer's daughter whom he had befriended and healed, or both. It was a note that read "From your Valentine."

The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in "Parlement of Foules", written in 1382 by Geoffrey Chaucer.

"For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make."

(For this was on Saint Valentines Day, when every bird comes there to choose his mate.)

(Thanks, Wikipedia!!!)

My first image of this Valentines Day was glancing out the window at about 7.30 am, seeing a guy in his dressing gown and bare feet, going to his white van parked just up the road, climbing in, writing his card which he proceeded to lick down as he walked back to his flat, also clutching a bunch of flowers which had been in the van overnight, presumably not in water, and therefore looking a bit bedraggled.... Still, it is the thought that counts. At least he remembered!

The thought that counts.... Hmmmm..... Well, that was what I was relying on... I must admit, I didn't send or receive a card this year. Not that we forgot! My fiancee lives about 8000 miles away, in a place where the postal service is to say the least erratic. It is unlikely that she would have received any card I sent. Deliveries full of errors rather than eros....

We both looked on line, but could not see anything suitable to send via the internet. But we had spent a lot of the preceeding days chatting thorough a lot of big issues, issues affecting our life together. All good stuff, and very much a focus for what our love is all about. Commitment, unity in difficult decisions, shared joys and sorrows, putting the other person first, wanting a love to flourish in which both of us are encouraged to grow more into the person we are, more into the person we can be, so that the love also grows.... That is an all year round love.... not a special occasions event, sponsored by Hallmark Cards....

So, Valentines Day.... The flowers fade, die, are thrown away. The chocolates are eaten. The special valentines day meal is consumed, and passes.... Even the cards get thrown away, I guess, eventually. But the love which is meaningful, lasts .........