The Snowflake Chronicles

Alphabetical Meditation on Valentine�s Day

7 Mulk 163 B.E. – Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Alone on Valentine’s Day, I don’t suppose this is the worst thing that can happen to a person. Especially since St. Valentine himself was in a prison cell waiting to be executed for performing marriages between Roman soldiers and their chosen spouses against the Emperor’s orders.

Before the executioner beheaded him, St. Valentine sent a love not to the jailer’s daughter, whom he loved. He fell in love with her in prison, so I don’t suppose there was much of a courtship. I don’t know what she did after he died, but that might be a good subject for a historical romance. I don’t write romances myself, historical or otherwise. Although, I suppose I could use it as the theme of a poem.

Chocolate is supposed to be an aphrodisiac. Of course, there are other aphrodisiacs as well, some of them are quite deadly, some don’t work at all, while other are reputed to be effective. How effective chocolate is I don’t know, but it isn’t deadly except when one is allergic to it. Then I guess you send your love another type of aphrodisiac.

Deadly aphrodisiacs make a rather strange subject for Valentine’s Day. However, there are precedents for it in both myth and literature. One poet (can’t remember who right off hand) wrote about Cupid and Death going into a bar (I think it was a bar, but I’m not sure about that either). Anyway, before starting their dinking contest, they tossed their quivers on the ground and the arrows got mixed up. The two of them were so drunk that they couldn’t tell their arrows apart. So a few of Cupid’s arrows got into Death’s quiver and visa versa; that’s supposed to be the reason young men die and old men fall in love.

Experiencing Valentine’s Day as a single female; since I don’t have a man in my life to buy me candy, flowers and jewelry I have to do those things for myself. Maybe that would be a good way to celebrate, send myself roses with a note containing a poem from a secret admirer. Although, if I’m given the choice between roses and chocolate, I’ll take the chocolate.

Faith is a good thing to celebrate on Valentine’s Day. Although neither religion nor spirituality are considered a traditional part of the daily celebration; the day is named after a Saint.

Gifts for Valentines Day range from the obscene to the amusing. On the news this morning, some jeweler was selling a huge diamond ring in a chocolate heart box. It cost thousands of dollars, which I found interesting. When men buy expensive gifts like that, I always wonder what he did to get her pissed off at him that bad. Gifts like this also explain why men pay an average of $250 for V-Day gifts when women pay only $85.

Holidays are too commercialized! The online merchants have advertised the Valentines Day since sometime in January. The spammers have sent some laughable and obscene advertisements for the day. At least, I think the spammers’ e-mails are obscene, I don’t open them the subject lines are enough to either make me laugh or blush.

I remember Valentine’s Day in grade school. Everybody made a cardboard box “mail box” to put cards in. I remember one year, the teacher instructed everyone to make sure they gave everybody in the class a card rather than just their friends. I got more cards that year than every before. I always gave everyone a Valentine’s Day card (my mother insisted on it), but some of the other student’s (especially those from the “in” crowd didn’t). Thinking about it now, I don’t believe it bothered me not getting cards from all the student’s in class.

Just remembering the cute little cards that we exchanged in grade school makes me smile; they were colorful and made of cardboard. My mother could buy a sheet of them at the “five and dime” for between $0.50 and $1.50 plus sales tax. They came with little white envelops. You cut them out and put the name of the person the valentine was for and who it was from. Alternately you could put to a friend on all of them and then you didn’t have to put the name of the person on the envelop. I always addressed the card to the individual students, signed it and then put the student’s name on outside of the envelop. After all, you didn’t want to put the card in the wrong “mail box”.

Kids are cruel, another odd subject for Valentine’s Day, but I think it goes along with the grade school and high school memories. My friends and I weren’t in the “in” crowd. To begin with, my Grandparents live on the wrong side of the track, my father was an alcoholic and later my parents were divorced. So in the town we lived in I had three strikes against me to begin with. Then there was the fact that I developed early, that didn’t help my popularity with the girls anyway. As for the boys, they appear too immature to bother consider.

Love is supposed to be the theme on Valentine’s Day. I don’t write romance or love stories. My love poems (unless they are mystic poems) are excessively bitter and not appropriate to send in Valentine’s Cards. I think I’ll try my hand at writing a mystic love poem for the Day of Love.

Men are intriguing. I knew in grade school that I was attracted to them. They have become more intriguing over the years. I think I need to explore why I’m attracted to the louses, scoundrels, the parasites, the rascal, the rats, the rogues, and the good-for-nothings. I suspect it may have something to do with my self-esteem. It also may have something to do with some of my childhood experiences.

No, is a word I have difficulty saying. I should have said it to a number of people in my life. One of my resolutions for 2007 is to say No when my gut feeling tells me to say it. Say No without any excuse as to why I’m saying No; another odd subject for Valentines Day.

One single rose, it’s pedals the color of new fallen snow, in the center of eleven bright red roses. The white rose stands for true love and the red for passionate love. I’ve always wanted to receive a bouquet of red roses with a single white rose in the center. I’ve never received roses from a lover or any man who was courting me. I’ve never been courted. No wonder my aromatic love poems are bitter.

Past is past, but if one doesn’t deal with the trauma then it haunts the present and the future. Valentine’s Day is a good day, for a single person to deal with past loves and memories. Then next year at the same time, perhaps one is ready for a new beginning with someone new.

Questions make good conversation, but I’m not sure they do a lot for a romantic evening. Especially if one of the questions is, “Why am I attracted to someone who considers want a cigarette and a drink baby courting?” I used to smoke and drink, I gave up about the same time. I gave them up when I figured out what type of males I attracted.

Revenge is another interesting subject for Valentine’s Day. I got revenge on a guy once. When I left Blackwell, I mistakenly gave him the phone number I’d be at in Las Vegas. He came to Vegas sometime later and I was still at that phone number. He called and played the guess who game. I pretended not to remember him. He sounded pissed when he finally hung up. I don’t think he called around Valentine’s Day, but that doesn’t matter.

Send an e-mail card to someone tomorrow. Even if you are alone and don’t have anyone special. Send one any way, you may give someone a lift. If you don’t have someone then sent yellow roses (friendship) to a friend or a senior in an assisted living home. Do something to pick yourself up and avoid depression.

Tears are extremely cleansing. Cry on Valentine’s Day. Tears may sound depressing, but they’re not; especially if you rent a sad movie and cry when the lovers part or the hero’s love dies.

Use Valentine’s Day creatively; if your spouse, lover or whatever works send flowers and or chocolate. At the very least, write a non-bitter romantic love poem. OK, for some of us that’s difficult, but part of creativity is getting out side the box.

Voice your opinion. I suggestion going online and participating in some type of pole on Valentine’s Day; especially if you’ve never did one before. On the other hand, if you do participate in poles and surveys than try writing one of your own and posting it on writing.com. You can create an opinion poll about Valentine’s Day or some aspect of it.

What do single people do on Valentine’s Day? This is an interesting question. I planning on staying home or taking what money I have and put some gas in the car. Although I probably should wait until Thursday, when I’m planning to go out to get gas. Of course, my plans could always change.

X – is for ex-lovers and other exs. Remember the best revenge is living well.

You know, I didn’t think I had issues with Valentine’s Day until I started writing this entry. I may have some issues with the Day for Lovers.

Zebras are some of my favorite animals, whether they are black with white stripes or white with black strips. The reason I like Zebras is that they remind me of chocolate. Zebras look like a blend of light and dark chocolate. Zebras rather than doves or any other animal are or should be the symbol for Valentine’s Day because they resemble a blend of Valentine’s most popular candy.