Soemmerring’s Gazelles
Tomorrow is the unofficial holiday of love. Naysayers dismiss it as a Hallmark holiday, but woe unto thee who neglects this feast of Saint Valentine. To Whom It May Concern, if you are in a relationship, then it would behoove you to at the very least, to get a card. You would think that everyone would have learned this lesson in kindergarten.
Imagine a middle-age couple lying in bed together, where the wife is speaking to her husband, “I received two anonymous valentines. One, I fancy, was from you.” – From a New Yorker cartoon
Nothing is reliably known of St. Valentine except his name and the fact that he died on February 14. He is thought to have lived in Italy, in the 3rd century. It is even uncertain whether he was one person or two. He was thought to be a martyr, but the lack of any evidence about him caused the Catholic Church to drop him from their roll of saints. It’s a good thing that Hallmark was there to pickup the slack; otherwise we would have to celebrate Mr. Valentine’s Day.
With Anne I feel like I won the lottery. We met in high school, some 42 years ago and I can’t imagine life without her. That being said, I don’t believe that my luck in love really qualifies me to offer advice to the lovelorn, but neither does it disqualify me either. Reading some of the articles and blogs of the advice nature written this week, it is easy to believe that there are no qualifications required. All that being said let me give it my best shot and let the reader beware.
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Find the most loving, understanding, beautiful, etc. etc. etc. woman [or man] that you will ever meet and marry them. Caveat, they have to be able to overlook all of your less than desirable traits and I mean all of them.
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I may have set the search criteria incorrectly in the preceding bullet. Google just returned a gazillion wrong answers instead of The One. Fortunately for me, when I found Anne, Google hadn’t been invented yet, but I should try to be more relevant to my 21st-Century audience.
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Computer dating is oft discussed these days and surprisingly I have some experience in this field. You see Anne was my computer date. We met in our high school computer class. I know this is not what you were thinking, but computers were a lot different back then and I expect so is dating now.
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The pictured gazelles seem to make a nice couple, but they are bound together in a zoo cage, much like a bad marriage can bind two people. Plus, the field of potential partners is not all that great at the zoo. Plus, plus, this doesn’t prevent him from playing the field, which he does. Appearances may be deceiving or what works for one couple may not work for you.
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I’m going back to bullet item #1. It is what I know best, even if it is the least helpful. Just, let me just rephrase it a bit. Find a loving, understanding and beautiful woman [or man] that you meet and if it feels right marry them. They should be able to overlook most of your less than desirable traits and you should theirs.
We both wish you all a happy Valentine’s Day! Catch you on the flip side …