Keeping the Romance Alive

Many new chapters are just on the horizon in my life right now.  I can see the sun rising and the warmth is so close now I have found myself now running towards it as dawn approaches my present life.  What does this mean, really?  Well it means that I am desperately grasping at ideas and opportunities around me and am so hopeful for my future that I am jumping in head-first, pushing myself to just be bold and do it!  I am on the starting side of many large things in life and I've found that right now, if I can be so bold as to just take the leap, there will probably be wonderful things that await me.  In this post I hope to catalog a few of these exciting life changes so that I may go back in a few months time and see what came of them.  Hopefully I won't disappoint myself too much... I HOPE that I will take these leaps and will find myself in a whole new world by then.  *crosses fingers*


The title of this post is certainly inspired by the fact that today is indeed Valentine's Day.  Interestingly enough I took it upon myself to wiki Valentine's Day because all I really knew about it was that it was named after a martyr, St Valentine (Valentinus), cupid some how manifested himself into the holiday, and that it's a holiday that most people generally aren't a fan of because they're either single or feel pressured as a couple to show their affection through a capitalist scam encouraging the purchase of chocolates, flowers, expensive meals, and really anything red or speckled with hearts.  Can you tell I'm not a fan?

Anyway, as I researched the history of what some lovingly pet-named "Singles Awareness Day", I found something that really appealed to my own interests.  Did you know that Valentine's Day wouldn't exist as it does now without Chaucer?    Can you believe that people have been giving candy and "valentine's" cards since the 15th century?!  I bet you didn't!  Well then, let me enlighten you!  Warning: Incoming nerdy literary facts.  Check this out... It says here in wiki (yes, I know, the internet's most trusted source, right?) that Chaucer was the first to associate Valentine's Day with romantic love in his poem Parliament of Fowls:

You know that on Saint Valentine’s day,

By my statute and through my governance,

You come to choose – and then fly your way –

Your mates, as I your desires enhance.

But nonetheless my rightful ordinance

I may not alter, for all the world to win,

That he that is most worthy must begin.

Before Chaucer's poem, Valentine's apparently never had any romantic connotation.  The poem had an even more romantic impact since it was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia.  In the poem Chaucer creates fictional "old" traditions that were never actually traditions before Chaucer wrote the poem.  Courtly love and the "High Court of Love" (established on Valentine's Day in the c1400) influenced the romantic and poetic nature of the holiday we know today as well.  The members of The High Court of Love, established to deal with matters of love, relationships, and abused women, were chosen in a poetry contest of sorts.  Women would hear their poetry and judge them based on their understanding of love and relationships.  Soon after you have Valentine's Day appearing in Shakespeare's work and English poet John Donne all but knicks Chaucer's marriage of birds imagery and writes his own poem celebrating the marriage of Elizabeth on... you guessed it, Valentine's Day.  

 Like a Sir.

Okay okay okay.  So literary history lesson over.   There is, however, a good segue into what you may consider to be slightly more interesting information.  The theme of this post "Keeping Romance Alive" is something very much inspired by the choices I face in my life of late.  One of those choices being that I've decided to go back to grad school.  I have several options before me and I find myself questioning myself constantly on what the most "responsible" decision is to make.  However, in the spirit of romance, I am reminded of the many novels I've read that would be dreadfully boring if the characters had just stayed in their hometown and gotten a "safe" degree and gotten a "good" job and functioned normally in society.  In the spirit of romance, I have decided that I WILL study abroad.  I don't know when, how or why, but I WILL be furthering my education overseas and I don't want to settle for anything less.  Of course, the not romantic bit of that is that I will need to either hurry and sell everything I own or spend a year raising as much money as possible.  Either way... world... here I effing come.

Right, okay.  So .. nerdy ranting... romantic life chapters... and now what?  Ah yes.  It wouldn't be Valentine's without a Valentine now would it?  Yes well, I DO have a Valentine and while my love life is something I keep very private at the moment, I do have a soft spot for mushy, gushy displays of affections.  Leo, I saw this adorable Valentine online and immediately thought of you.  I could have just linked it to you, but I thought this would be more special.  :)  Happy Valentine's Day!

Hoping you all had a wonderful day.  Hope you showed someone special how much you love them even if it's not romantic.  Heck, my Mom was the first to wish me Happy V-day today and it made my whole morning!  And if you're still reading this blog, you get a humungous teddy bear squish! Muah!  

-Little Bird