Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to fall in love again
Valentine’s Day has a rich and long history, but even if it had not been born almost a thousand years ago, I think that the pandemic would have needed to create it.
Living in lockdown, social distancing, and unbelievable stress have joined together to place an enormous amount of stress on relationships.
In the old adage that “distance makes the heart grow fonder,” being in close confinement can stir a savage beast. It also can help couples get to know each other again, rediscovering the reason they are in each other’s life.
Valentine’s Day is a perfect time to fall in love, all over again.
It is perhaps strange to learn that Valentines’ Day was born out of the celebration for the Christian Feast of St. Valentine which honors at least three Christians martyrs named Valentine.
One, a priest in third century Rome, defied the order when the Emperor Claudius decided to outlaw marriages for young soldiers. Valentine continued to perform these marriages in secret and Claudiuos eventually had him killed for it.
He literally died for love. You can blame having to buy cards with romantic verses on Geoffrey Chaucer, the English poet who recorded the day as a romantic celebration in his 1375 poem “Parliament of Foules.”
The oldest known Valentine was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, the Duke of Orleans, to his wife, while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
Many of our Valentine symbols come from medieval times. It was then that lovers started using the letter X to stand for kiss, and images of birds symbolizing the beginning of mating season. And those little candy message hearts that seem to have been around forever, they were created in 1866.
Red roses have been symbolic with romance since Victorian days. Business has long been in love with Valentine’s Day, grossing over 20.7 billion in 2019 alone.
Our local businesses, so hurt by this long pandemic, are hoping that we will remember, and honor the day with cards, candy, flowers, gifts and takeout dinners.
They await your call to make you all heroes or heroines. It is surely a challenge this year to find ways to celebrate the holiday set aside for love with closed restaurants, social distancing and face masks.
I know that some citizens of Los Banos will bask in their happy memories, while others will be creative and find new ways of celebrating.
I know that Sandy and John Spevak, who have been hibernating together in their home for most of the past year, hope to celebrate this Valentine’s Day by driving 75 miles to Rio del Mar and enjoying an outdoor meal at Cafe Rio while remembering that 20 years ago, on Valentine’s Day, they also dined at Cafe Rio.
That was just 10 days before they were married on the Rio del Mar beach by the vacation home of Jerry and Colleen Menfee. Congratulations, Sandy and John, celebrating 20 years of friendship, love and a beautiful life together.
When I asked Jerry Knoester about a favorite Valentine’s Day memory he at first replied that he and Lois really didn’t do Valentine’s Day.
He said: ”We don’t go out to lunch or dinner. I don’t send Lois flowers. I don’t get her a card, we’re just not the romantic kind. It’s just another day and we do not commercialize it. When I was working in Sunnyvale, my female co-workers chided me for not being romantic or giving flowers to Lois, even though I told them that Lois wasn’t into that thing.
Still they pressured me. So finally I called Los Banos Flower Shop and I had a bouquet sent to Lois. That kept them quiet for awhile.”
A few days later I got another email from Jerry saying: “You know, Diana, now that you have put all of this in my mind, I might just go out and get a box of chocolates for Lois.” I smiled to myself. My work was done.
In my life I was married to a very romantic, poem writing, flower sending, candy and jewelry buying husband, and now I am married to Grover, a pragmatist who doesn’t go in for such things, or so he says.
But I do recall one Valentine’s Day a few years ago where he displayed creativity and hit the bull’s eye. I am a great movie lover, and get into the Oscar races.
That year I had tried to see as many of the nominated films as I could, but time was running short. But come Valentine’ Day Grover told me that we were going for a drive and he headed “over the hill.”
Soon we were pulling into a large shopping complex where there were two multiplex theaters. Grover had called ahead and figured out, with a minimum of running back and forth, how we could see four of the nominated films.
To me it was heaven, and on the way home he stopped at Barnes and Noble and told me to go pick out two books!
Now that was a Valentine’s Day I will always remember! We have plenty of time to worry and complain and be frustrated all year, but for one day in February, let’s honor the best four letter word of them all.
Love, we salute you!!