Happy Valentine’s Day! Valentine’s Day has always seemed a
strange holiday to me. We celebrate the life and martyrdom of a Christian saint
by giving each other flowers that die, trinkets that collect dust, and obscene
amount of chocolate, idolizing the idea of romantic love that doesn't last. Ok, I can get behind
the chocolate, but then again, I believe that rainy days and Mondays are good enough
reasons to give and receive chocolate.
Anyway, do you know that no historian can pinpoint
exactly which Saint Valentine inspired the holiday and that no one associated
romantic gestures to the day until Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem in the 14th
century?
All of this might make you think that I’m an unromantic
cynic, but nothing could be farther from the truth. I’m a huge fan of love and
romance. I’m just not a huge fan of telling people which day of the year on
which to be romantic. I’m also not a huge fan of turning love and romance into
a billion dollar industry. I’m also not a fan of an entire year of love and
romance being completely disregarded and forgotten if your sweetie doesn’t give
you flowers on Valentine’s Day.
I came across the best blog post yesterday explaining that
while Americans spend an exorbitant amount of money expressing their “love” on
Valentine’s Day, we still have the highest divorce rate in the world. Check out
A
Love Worth Celebrating on Growing
Home for a wonderful post about love. I’m not going to spoil it for you,
but it’s worth the couple of minutes to stop by Jacinda’s blog for a look see.
Thanks for stopping by! By the way, I have a freaky
Valentine’s Day fact for you that may help explain my lack of enthusiasm for
this holiday. For those who don’t know, I was married once before, many, many,
many years ago. We got married on Valentine’s Day. Things went very badly very
quickly. When I finally got the courage to re-marry, I ended up marrying a man
whose birthday is on Valentine’s Day. Since we’re still married 19 years later,
I’m going to guess that Valentine’s Day was supposed to be significant to me,
just not in the way that I thought!
Grace and peace be
yours in abundance,
Betty
Thanks for the history lesson. :)
ReplyDeleteAlso married once before, also now married 19 years! Thankfully, God is in the business of restoring the years the locusts have eaten. How sweet that your dh's birthday is on Valentine's Day.
Blessings, ~Lisa
Oh you get to love on your hubby no matter what then on that day. [o=
ReplyDeleteI agree we need to love our sweethearts year round and not only on one day of focus. And not to spend outrageous amounts of money on a day that everything goes dramatically in price.
I will go check out that post, thank you.
Blessings and ((HUGS))
-Mary
Thanks for your post ;) :) I think love is something to celebrate every day, too :) Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather :)
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