Valentine's Day

St. Valentine, a Roman Catholic, was beheaded on February 14th for his proclamation of the gospel.  Call me dense, but I don't see the correlation between Valentine and celebrating love, and tiny hearts with words on them, or a dozen roses and chocolate.  It seems like a far stretch to me to connect the two.

A more obvious origin of Valentines Day would be the ancient pagan Roman festival of Lupercalia.  In celebration of Lupercalia, to begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification."The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year."Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage." (Valentines Day, History Channel web site, retrieved Jan. 10, 2011) Sounds like New York City to me.

Thankfully, my wife understands that I love her more this year, without giving her a single rose, than the year that I gave her 40 dozen roses.  This year I am not even with my wife. It just didn't work out. Dena is at home.  I am in Kentucky.  We did "celebrate" though.  We wore our red shirts and went to P.F. Changs to have a meal together yesterday.  We talked, and we planned, and we shared time together. And that was perfect for me.  We still have fun together, and act silly together, but I also feel like we have a much more comfortable, easy, deeper appreciation and love for each other after 25 years together.

I am not boycotting Valentine's Day, but simply put, I don't need Hallmark to tell me to appreciate my wife.  She is my life partner.  She is my best friend.  She is my confidant.  It has not been easy at times, but for nearly 25 years we have built a life together.  We have raised two boys together.  We have been wealthy together and we have been poor together.  We laugh often and Dena cries often (it's an inside joke)  And, God willing, I will enter into the "late summer" period of my life with her by my side and build many more memories together.

I love you Dena.  Thank you for being more than my Valentine.