Happy Valentine's Day

When I was a kid, Valentine was a saint.  He was one of the ones that we tried to dress up like on All Saint's Day at Catholic school.  These days, no one says "St. Valentine's Day", they've dropped the saint and just refer to it as Valentine's Day.  I'm not sure being martyred for their faith made either of the known Valentines much of a conventional basis for chocolate hearts or red roses.  Being buried on February 14th doesn't really make it seem like a lover's day, does it?

Commercialization doesn't necessarily make something worse.  A lot of  things seem to be improved when advertising executives think them out and make them palatable to a massive audience.  It's kind of hard to remember that when the two Valentines were dying for their faith, they were the rock stars of their age.  Over the course of time, we forget that for someone to attain that status in the Catholic faith, their works and story had to be kept alive and cheerleaded for over two hundred years.  People made it their life's work to remember the miracles and campaign to get both of these Valentines considered for sainthood. Nowadays, I think Marilyn Monroe and Elvis are the only two Americans who might be kept in people's hearts for more than two hundred years.  These days, we tend to knock people off pedestals, not enshrine them there.

We celebrate Valentine's Day by remembering our sweethearts.  It's an observation of eternal love.  All of the items that are traditional gifts for this anniversary symbolize true love.  From a religious standpoint, sacrificing your life because of your faith is the ultimate expression of love for the Lord.  As a child, I was disturbed by the stories told to me by the nuns--how terrifying to be expected to sacrifice your life for an ideal.

As a parent, I would easily have sacrificed my life to save my child a moment of distress.  A few years of maturity gave me the understanding to see how love affects all actions.  Most parents' love is true and eternal.  Sacrifice for a loved one becomes understandable when you've truly loved.  It's a tricky thing to explain.  I think that you have to experience love before you can look at situations and see its impact.

Regardless of your understanding of love and its impacts, today is the day set aside for remembrance of love.  Today is not a day for parental love to be explored, it's not a day to expose sacrifices or martyrdom.  Valentine's Day is a day for couples to explore their love for each other.  Even though its symbolized by cupids shooting arrows, hearts, chocolate and roses, love is a long term commitment to the happiness of your mate.