“Romance is dead. It was acquired in a hostile takeover by Hallmark and Disney, homogenized, and sold off piece by piece.” Matt Groening

I completely and whole-heartedly disagree! Who’s with me?

February is this inocuous, frigid, 2nd month of the year that somehow contains a day set aside for turning up the heat in relationships and expressing your feelings of love. I decided to take the easy, obvious road this month and explore this a little, for my own benefit, if not for yours.

Let’s start with St. Valentine shall we? According to my brief internet search, the consensus is that there were three such saints. I’ll pick the most romantic legend: the one who fell in love with his jailor’s daughter while she secretly visitied him throughout his sentence. Before he was put to death, he wrote her a love letter signed: “From your Valentine,” A perfect example of obviously unrequited love, at least for the poor, empty-handed girl. This is just one of many versions of the tale. All of which depict a heroically martyred, sympatheitc, romantic figure of a man: a saint among saints in every case.

I found that the 14th day of February has many origins as well. I like the one that notes this time as the official begining of Spring. During the Middle Ages in England and France, this was the time of the year that the birds began to pair and choose mates.

It’s my view that if you have already chosen your mate, Valentine’s Day affords you the perfect opportunity to show them that you don’t regret that choice. I can see where it would be convenient to dismiss Valentine’s Day as a corny, comercialistic, waste of money and time. Couples are so busy with everyday life that romantic poems, expressive gestures, beautiful flowers, and surprise phone calls about nothing except to say “I love you”, seem ridiculous and pointless in the whole scheme of things. But is that a fair argument? When is the last time you stopped and stood facing each other in complete peace to focus on the only person that is a true witness to your life? How long could it possibly take to write a note or call the flower shop? Think of the pay off! It seems to me, in the whole scheme of things, that it would be worth it though I have no experience and I am no expert.

I am, however, a “hopeful romantic” and I’m sure it’s because like so many of us, I haven’t experienced that day to day business which is the not-so-romantic side of a committed relationship. Couples who’ve managed to find that comfortable companion in their lives need to occasionally realize what a wonderful thing they have in that person and never take it for granted. If you are one of those single individuals that isn’t sure if they are ready to profess their love to that unsuspecting, special someone…do it now for crying out loud! What if the world ends tomorrow, more realistically; what if someone else beats you to the punch while you are weighing your options and mustering your courage? Your window of opportunity is quickly approaching and what’s the worst thing that could happen?

For the rest of us….I will close with a quote from a little book in my private library: Reflections of a Bachelor Girl by Helen Rowland; copyright 1909 (I’m thinking it still holds true): “The saddest sight on earth is an old bachelor trying to sew on a button with a blunt needle and a piece of string.”

—North Bend Eagle 13 Feb 2007

I’m not an historian…or is it “a historian”? None-the-less I would like to take this opportunity to share a childhood memory of mine that involves what we thought was a chance meeting with the President at the time.

My sisters and I had this habit of chatting during mass each Sunday. We children would sit between our parents and Dad would rest his arm on the pew behind us, if we got too carried away with giggles or whisperings he would tap our heads….gently with his ring…to remind us to face forward, button our lips, and pay attention for you never knew, the possibility of learning something was always afoot.

One Sunday at the Morse Bluff Catholic Church, in the mid-1970s, we kids were gawking around the church before mass began, commenting on various things that little girls find amusing, and I remember, like it was yesterday, one of us innocently asking Mom; “Isn’t that President Ford sitting over there?” I imagine “Watergate” and President Ford’s recent, impromptu inauguration were hot topics in everyone’s house at the time so he must have been fresh on our minds for that reason. She shot back with the obligatory mom response of “What?!?” So we pointed…you know, without actually pointing….toward the unsuspecting man sitting behind us, over a little, and couple of rows back. Mom, nonchalantly looked back in the direction of our small fingers, made visual contact, snapped forward, and her face took on a grin that quickly lead to a stifled, though church-appropriate, laugh. She looked at Dad, leaned across us, whispered something to him and then, they both were laughing. We sat there, dumbfounded with our own “What?!?” expressions. They smiled throughout the next hour.

After the service, Mom couldn’t wait to go up and talk (bravely I remember thinking) to the 38th Presedient of our United States. Okay, so he actually turned out to be one of our neighbors: Mr. Leonard Kavan; a man of presidential stature in his own right, mistakenly identified as President Gerald Ford by three curious and creative young ladies. The grown ups had a big chuckle at our expense and that is something I personally loved to acheive as a child anyway, the hilarity was lost on no one.

This little archived file came to the forefront of my mind, the week between Christmas and the New Year, when I first heard the news of former President Ford’s passing. He was the first president of my memory, he was a man respected, he stepped up to the plate when called upon and did his best for our country, he was truly larger than life for myself and many others. I just wanted to take this moment to remember him in my own way.

—North Bend Eagle 10 Jan 2007