Musings on V-Day

This Sunday was Valentine's day, and I didn't get to see B, but we had already celebrated the weekend before. I got him the first season of Chuck, which is apparently no longer online, and he took me out for a champagne brunch! Yum. It was right after symposium AND the medical school formal, so that was a wonderful chance to relax together before the boards/law school resumed control of our lives. I don't think it's cool that people kept bugging him about coming to see me specifically for V-day -- poor guy! We already celebrated together. Yeesh, leave him alone. My mom, however, flew out to see my dad in Tokyo for Valentine's Day! Aww, cute parents.

I don't think Valentine's Day should be a Hallmark (tm or whatever) holiday, with lots of commercial stuff, but I think it is a nice idea. I think it's nice that the we care enough about love to set aside one day out of the year, one day when you are allowed, even expected, to spend time with your partner. And if you're single, I think the point of Valentine's day is to enjoy yourself, just remembering who you are and the talents you bring to the world, maybe appreciating the gifts you've been given. Showing yourself some serious love!

My favorite single Valentine's Day has always been (surprise surprise) a cup of tea, a cat, and a good book. There was one time people made anti-Valentine's Day cards at my high school because they were single (and again in college), but somehow it seemed too -- unhappy to be making cards against love, or against yourself for being single, or against the world for not providing someone... I don't know. My mom is an optimist and it's a trait I greatly admire. Life is too short to be cynical and too long to stay angry, you know?

Eve Ensler did the V-day monologues to reclaim Valentine's Day, in part. I think they're very powerful for women who aren't aware of their sexuality, or don't feel they can own up to it properly. But on the other hand, I think our society is a little too obsessed with sexuality. Somehow, the content of your character gets lost by the wayside.

Anyway, so back to the cup of tea, cat, and good book (I wasn't single this year, but I was far from my valentine, and from my non-furry family members): One of my favorite series of all time is Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. By the standards of the day, Anne was very liberated -- but she just did her own thing and lived by example. Kind of like my grandparents and my parents, come to think of it.

This is a V-day-appropriate verse from Locksley Hall by Lord Alfred Tennyson that LM Montgomery quotes from a lot:

Love took up the glass of Time, and turn'd it in his glowing hands;
Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden sands.

Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might:
Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass'd in music out of sight.

Many a morning on the moorland did we hear the copses ring
And her whisper throng'd my pulses with the fulness of the Spring.

Many an evening by the waters did we watch the stately ships,
And our spirits rush'd together at the touching of the lips.

I think the fourth line is especially powerful. Is losing yourself in the music a good thing? I hope so! I think if it's your ego, it must be :)