I usually kind of pass through Valentine's Day without thinking about it, but this year something is different: Sarah. I've alluded to her a few times in this journal, but believe me, for the last six months I've been wanting to jump up and shout, "Hey, look! This beautiful lady loves me!" Fortunately I've got enough discretion in me to show some restraint; I've always believed nothing kills a relationship more than publicity. (And a google search popping up my journal finding me talking about her might have been rather awkward back then. She knows about it now, of course. :) )
Sometime last summer, Sarah took a chance and emailed me off of a personals site. Remember the singing school I went to last year? I was posting about how much I enjoyed it, saying how much I loved talking about it. And Sarah has been attending a different singing school for five years! Turned out we both love these oldstyle Christian singing schools a lot. This year, we'll be going to each other's schools (and showing each other off, I think).
And that's not all we have in common. Sarah is by no means a technical person, but she's quite the Star Wars and Star Trek fan. (And has even pointed me at some other sci-fi I need to read.) Her house is filled with books. (First thing she did the first time she visited was wander off and look at my bookshelf.) We like a lot of the same things. And I mean a lot; I keep being surprised. We both love snow and winter; we both love singing; we both love The Sound of Music and It's a Wonderful Life.
Most importantly, we are both Christians. Both committed to the same vision of what the church should be, and both committed to working for it. And I can't think of a better foundation for a life together.
Sarah's a very beautiful woman. For the first two weeks of our online relationship, I wondered what she looked like. Then one morning I was surprised and delighted to discover she'd added a picture to her profile on that singles' site. And boy was she attractive. She's a wonderful person in many ways.
It wasn't long until my life got rescheduled. Weekdays I worked harder to take care of school and everything I needed to do, so Saturdays or Sundays I could drive out to see her (two hours away) or vice versa. Got back into AIM (Sarah's been online longer than me, actually) so we could talk every night [talking to her now, actually]. Even started to clean the place up on the weekends when she came out.
I'm in love. I always figured I'd find someone, some day, but never particularly started to look until last year. Glad I found the right one.
Sarah, I know you'll read this at some point; maybe tomorrow or in a few months. Thanks for giving me a reason to be online every night. ;)
Oh, one last thing: we spent a large chunk of last Saturday watching background material from the extended Fellowship of the Rings DVD together. Is that a great girlfriend, or what? (And, no, I didn't make her watch it. The DVD belongs to her family.)
Re:Troll ahead
wickline on 2003-02-16T18:49:50
> a 100% roman catholic celebration
There's at least two VD holidays.
Most major holidays have a commercial counterpart which happens on the same day of the original holiday, but is primarily concerned with the production/purchasing of mass-produced merchandise (particularly chocolate products in holiday-styled wrappers).
-matt
Re:Troll ahead
rafael on 2003-02-16T20:04:05
You mean, like Christmas ?Re:Troll ahead
wickline on 2003-02-17T00:53:01
our local grocery store has a section for these holiday chocolates. It's never empty. Any time of year you can buy your familiar Dove chocolates, Reses peanut butter cups, York pepermint patties, or M and Ms in some 'special' seasonal wrapper. Right now, the section has 50% marked-down Valentine's candy, but I'm sure that once it's gone they'll have green shamrock wrappers around the same candies.
At the same time, two rows over you can buy teddy bears with green scarfs instead of the pink ones they wore last week, you can buy paper plates and house decorations to fit the holiday, and you can find new drinks on special at the bars.
As long as folks have stuff to sell, I imagine every holiday will have a commercial counterpart.:/
-matt
FMTYEWTK
jdavidb on 2003-02-17T15:27:36
I didn't consider that to be a troll at all. On the contrary, I thank you for your candor.
In the U.S., it's more and more common for Protestants to observe the Catholic holidays, either secularly or, increasingly, religiously. The Puritans and Separatists who formed the earliest New England colonies banned all of those holidays, but it didn't take. Nowadays, I even hear of Protestants observing Lent (which frustrates me to no end because of Colossians chapter 2).
As pointed out rather humorously in another post, these traditionally religious holidays have a serious secular/commercial aspect. Even areligious people are known to observe Christmas, Easter, etc. From the point of view over here, Valentine's Day would be one of the least religious of all. Every schoolchild in America, it seems, makes a Valentine's Day mailbox out of a white paper bag and gives a Valentine's Day card (sold in boxes of 50 or so and usually themed with popular cartoon characters; I told you it was commercialized) to every member of their class.
Most Protestants here observe the holidays to some extent. Ironically, though, my family heritage is one of the few that does not do so. My grandparents are quite focused on the pagan origins of these holidays, and do not observe them as all. My father had our family observe them to some extent as a purely secular holiday, and I have wavered between not celebrating or celebrating as a secular holiday. (Hmm... the phrase "secular holiday" may sound confusing to you, given the etymology of "holiday" => "holy day.") That said, I always appreciate a day off work and am quite happy to celebrate it as family time. Valentine's Day, as I said, has next to no religious overtones at all here. Incidentally, I was in the fifth grade before I knew Easter was about the resurrection of Christ. We commemorate the death, burial, and resurrection on the first day of every week.
I appreciate you making your comment because one of my prime considerations in choosing my level of involvement in a holiday is "what impression am I giving?" If I give the impression this holiday is a religious observance for me, I would rather not do it. (You won't find many in the U.S. of any faith who feel that way, though.)
Of course, a little research shows Valentine's Day, like most religious holidays, began as a pagan festival, so you might not want to call it 100% Roman Catholic.
:) Originally that was the day when young Roman boys and girls "paired up" for the year. From what I read, it seems inferred that this pairing up included sexual activity. Hardly sounds Catholic, Protestant, or Christian to me. Incidentally, as a member of the church of Christ, I could be considered something of a Protestant against the Protestants, as I do not accept many of their religious teachings any more than Catholicism. I guess I'm just a protest cat.
:) Re:FMTYEWTK
rafael on 2003-02-17T16:22:08
Thanks for your comments ! In fact it appears that I made a mistake : I didn't know that Valentine's day was a holiday in the US. It isn't in France, where nothing distinguishes the day of St Valentine from, say, the day of St Raphael (except that St Raphael isn't the saint of lovers). Hence, the implications are different : Valentine's day has no more (and no less) religious meaning than the average day of the year, and this meaning is strictly bound to the worshipping of saints (hence my remark about the catholicity of it). (The fact that many pagan deities have evolved into catholic saints is what I like to call the embrace-and-extend strategy of the church;-) Re:FMTYEWTK
jdavidb on 2003-02-17T16:40:49
Glad you enjoyed the info. I figured you would find some of it interesting. I hadn't realized Valentine's Day wasn't elevated beyond an ordinary Saint's Day outside of the U.S.
:) To sum up, the religious implications of holidays are tremendously variable here.
The fact that many pagan deities have evolved into catholic saints is what I like to call the embrace-and-extend strategy of the church.
lol, I was worried about saying anything quite that strong for fear of sounding like an anti-Catholic troll. Over here, it is hard in communication to separate the fact that I have strong disagreements with the Catholic religion (like this one) from the anti-Catholic bigotry of days gone by (and, unfortunately, at times the anti-Catholic bigotry of days present).
