|
 Every year around this time, I begin to hear the moans and groans from singles about what to do on Valentine's Day. This is quite unpleasant for me, since I don't believe that only one day of the year should be designated to honor love. In order to help me handle my frustration, I thought I'd do some research to find out a little more about this "holiday." Because I wasn't raised learning about saints and martyrs, I discovered that although myths and legends about St. Valentine abound, there's really only one story about him that's actually "romantic." In the third century A.D., the Roman Emperor Claudius II found that married men were often unwilling to leave their wives and children to serve in the military. To fill his dwindling army, the ruthless ruler outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, a priest in Rome, defied Claudius and performed marriages for young lovers in secret. When his actions were discovered, he was put to death on the 14th of February. How clandistine relationships and marriages morphed into a day of chocolate, roses and hype is beyond me, and would probably take a historian to uncover. Nevertheless, Valentine, the priest, was recognized and voted into sainthood. And since I understand that there's some good to be gained by honoring, or even emulating, a saint, I found a resource that I think will benefit today's singles. It's from the recent issue (Feb. 8-14 ) of TimeOut/New York entitled "Why you?re single. Whatever the reason, we?re here to help. " It offers a cornucopia of resources to help you a) improve your squeaky voice, overweight body, bad breath and/or poor posture; as well as b) get over-- feeling desperate, shy, cheap and/or obsessed with your pet or ex-lover; and even c) deal with being commitment-phobic (to name just a few). So honor St. Valentine by getting yourself ready for the relationship you really want. There's probably lots of ground to cover.
|
Welcome !
