15 Comments

The real valentines were the chaucer memes you made along the way.

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Chocolate is not a chaucery thing but I am all for it nonetheless. So much so that I had ten chocolate cookies todays to celebrate the body (and also to keep it from complaining about the cold and how it was so tired). Boosted some pretty birds pictures on line, sniffed some sweet mimosa in real life. Petted a tarty-floofy cat in real life as well. Now tea.

Life is sweet.

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I have been a V-Day hater for four decades, and this essay has done more to soften my stance - or possibly reverse it, I need to give it more thought - than anything else I have read in that time. Well done.

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You know, I really shouldn't need a post on the 'net to tell me today is a day to honor the gods of love and fertility I live with all the damned time. *facepalm*

I got so used to there being a major Pagan festival in my life on the weekend adjacent to VDay, I had the luxury of celebrating that accidentally while blithely ignoring all those years of unpopular-kid and obligatory socialization traumas.

Now that's gone, this year it's inexplicably screaming at me, and I come across this post and feel downright chastised. But in that good way that feels like an important message I should probably not ignore.

So thank you. Message received. Today is for the love and fertility gods I adore, as well as for my own love and loved ones. DUH.

If nobody minds, I'll celebrate more in Gold than Red, though...

-E-

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Brava, sister! I knew about St. Valentine, being raised Catholic, but I hadn't known the Chaucer part. Thank you for standing up for love and human connection and silly traditions, and doing so with such amazing eloquence. I could not have done it half so well; I'm actually jealous, and I've been told I write well. Geoff bless you!

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I hate St. Valentine's day for a different reason.

I worked my way through college as a chef, and one year, it was just me and my second (every other kitchen staff member called out sick (roll eyes)) and together we served 325 covers on a Tuesday night. (A typical mid week night was ~ 80 covers, and the kitchen had 4 team members)

I stumbled home about midnight that day, and I have loathed Valentine's day since.

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Aw, I love this. You write from such a deep place, thank you.

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I am a lifelong holiday hater, and you just changed my mind on this one. Don't know if I'll celebrate in the future but I LOVE being shown when I am wrong. Great piece - really cool. Thanks.

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I love this! This may have changed how I celebrate valentine's day going forward. Though I also have that Portlandia skit about putting birds on things looping in my head now. Thanks for that.

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Balancing the gender gap, I had not realised Chaucer was the one who popularised it. Also, rituals, yes! A secular community needs meaningful ritual just as much as any religious community. By decolonising St V's day and remaking it into a togetherness day, a day of broader love of good in the community (the winter thing doesn't resonate in Australia, we loving the summer in Feb), it becomes a mighty ritual. An anticapitalist ritual. Thank you for the different perspective.

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I lavishly enjoy Valentine's Day! I send dozens of kid Valentines to my friends and we send a Valentine's Day letter instead of a Christmas letter ... originally because lack of time slammed us and now tradition. And chocolate is always a plus for me!

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Feb 15, 2023·edited Feb 15, 2023

And then there's Our Bird Quetzalcoatl, (sort of) Promethean bringer of Chocolate. It's possible that Amaury Guichon has gotten more tangled up with this mythos lately, but I am not qualified to argue that.

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This was lovely and makes me happy to have subscribed! Thank you!

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This wise child most heartily agrees with you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrvu9F50Cmw&t=135s

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