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Show 10 - VALENTIMES . FEBRUARY 1993 VVVVVVVVVVVVVUVVVVVVV HAPPY VALENTINE'S from Page 1 because we feel like it. Sometimes it’s because we are neighbors living near and sidled over to where she was sitting near the hopscotch game. With a head full of words and a mouth full of silence, I held out to her my carton of chocolate milk, turned, and ran back to the kickball game. I was losing my head. I was in love. And neither of those happen to be far off the mark when it comes to what the history and essence of Valentine’s Day is all about. FIRST THE HISTORY. Early Christian martyrologies indicate that Saint Valentine was a Roman priest and physician who ministered to the tortured martyrs during the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius Claudius II. For his acts of kindness and mercy, Valentine was himself martyred on February 14, about the year 270 AD. It once seemed I had lost my head over Helen. Valentine literally lost his; Claudius had him beheaded. NOW THE LOVE. Saint Valentine is the patron of lovers. Ifit was an unlucky month for the good priest, it was also the month of the ancient Roman festival of Lupencus or Faunus. Celebrated on February 15, it was intended to secure the fertility of fields, flocks, and families. The festival began with two youths running a purificatory course around the Palantine, or town square, trailing strips of goat’s hide; these thongs were called februa and symbolized purification. Hence, February, the month of purification. Like the Greek goddess Hera, the Roman goddess Februata Juno was also the protector of women. Every woman had her protectress Juno, just as every man had his guardian Genius (sorry folks, that ain’t my chauvinism, that’s their history.) Wishing to honor both their beloved and her protectress, young men would write the name of their sweetheart upon an image of the goddess. The first Valentines. Forty years ago Donny and Helen weren’t ready to become lovers. But they did become friends. And that was special. Friendship, like love, is a gift. We make friends part of our life just each other. Or because we share a special passion like jogging or meditat- ing or adventuring together through sacred landscapes like these canyonlands. But though these may be involved in friendship, they are secondary to it. Basically our friends are not friends for any particular reason. They are friends for no particular reason. Our jobs or work, family ties, the way we the victims he tended. I reckon they even loved him. That he laid down his life for them seems like a high price to pay for friendship and love. From what I know of these rare gifts, I’d guess it’s worth the cost. — Donovan Roberts PS: A friend told me, “Love makes the world go ‘round. Chocolate makes the trip worthwhile.” Think I’m going to buy her a chocolate valentine. vote, the major achievements and blunders of our lives, religious convictions or lack of them, all of these are 9e mysteriously and miraculously set aside when friends get together. If we are old friends, we know all these things about each other, and a lot more besides. But they are beside the point—even if we choose to talk about them. Stripped, humanly speaking, to the bare essentials, we are ourselves the point. Distinctions of older or younger, richer or poorer, smarter or sillier, male and female, all these things cease to matter. We meet on a clean slate every time. And on equal terms. Anything may come of it, or nothing. That doesn’t matter either. Only meeting matters. Meeting and savoring the textures and territories of our friendship. And sometimes friends become lovers. We choose to present our intimate selves to the other’s company, their arms, their suffering and joy. And in so doing, we find ourselves. I guess that’s what love is all about, this most powerful and most powerless of bonds. It is most powerful because it alone conquers that final and most impregnable stronghoold—the human heart. And it is most powerless because it can do nothing except by consent. Friends and lovers discover that what is between them is not primarily an emotion but an act of will. The cozy emotional feeling is there, to be sure— the one we have as much control over as a yawn or sneeze. And yet so much more. Like being willing to work for their well-being, even if it means sometimes just leaving them alone. Certainly Roman physician/priest Saint Valentine made friends among (i O*O*O*O* Feb/Mar Sky Show FEBRUARY 1993 let—New Moon 6:05 am. MST Venus continues to shine brightly in the Western sky, reaching its brightest on the 24th (magnitude -4.6) Look about 20° below Venus for Mercury, putting on its best evening appearance for the year. Mars still shines bright in the high eastern sky as evening twilight fades. Comet Schaumasse, visible in binoculars or small telescopes, can be found as a patch of light among the background stars of southern Perseus. MARCH 1993 lst—First quarter Moon 8:46 am. 8th—Full Moon 2:46 am. 9th—Moon is 6° south of Jupiter 9 pm. 14th—Last Quarter Moon 9: 16 pm. Jupiter is at its best viewing for the year this month. It will rise in the evening sky and be prominent through the night. Venus moves into the low western sky this month and will be too close to the Sun to be seen by month’s end. Mars is high in the sky at dusk, setting after midnight. A telescope will show dark markings on the Martian surface. Comet Schaurnasse traverses Auriga and Lynx this month. Small scopes show a nebulous patch of light. —Sam Welch (from Astrology Magazine) O*O*O*O* |
