St. Valentine, My Hero

By Keith N Fisher

What are you doing on Monday? Hopefully, you’ll remember to kiss your loved one and wish them a happy Valentine’s Day.

In 2007, I wrote a blog lampooning Valentine’s day and making light of the fact that I didn’t write Romance. I talked about the mad frenzy experienced by husbands who forget to buy a present or put it off until the last minute, forcing them to choose from the remaining offerings.

In 2009, I advocated we, (husbands), band together and become each other’s personal shopper, making sure we are covered, whether or not we forget.

When I sat down to write this year I realized how much had changed in my life. I write women’s fiction now, and that translates to romance. I read romance and watch romantic movies. I’ve become a connoisseur.

I’m a big fan of boy meets girl, they fall in love, overcome obstacles and have the once in a lifetime romance everybody dreams of. In my writing, I plot ways of making two people fall into each other’s lives. I cry when somebody gets a broken heart.

Last night, I watched Valentine’s Day on DVD. In the movie, several plots merge into one. I thought I knew what would happen, but the writer sufficiently surprised me on almost every turn.

It’s written in the same way I wrote my newest submission, with several plots merging into one. I worry about my readers getting confused with the story lines but I think I’ve done a good job. You will laugh, cry, hate the villains, and love the heroes all at the same time.

Anyway I digress . . . According to Wikipedia, in about 496 BC, Pope Gelasius the first, proclaimed a feast to be celebrated every year on February 14. This was to honor three martyred saints of ancient Rome. One of them was allegedly Saint Valentinus.

The feast was slated to replace an old Pagan holiday of Lupercalia that had been celebrated for many years on February 15.

In the Middle Ages, the legends and the feast became associated with romantic love.

In the movie, a character claims St. Valentine was a priest who secretly married several couples who loved each other but were forbidden by the government to marry. I haven’t checked those facts but isn’t that a romantic story?

It kind of reminds you of Shakespeare’s Friar Lawrence who in his compassion married the star-crossed lovers.

Ah, Love. So much of life, begins and ends with the three little words, I love you. Teenagers swoon, men fight wars, girl friends cry, and mothers fuss, all for the idea of love.

It must have been hard for Valentine, to follow his heart and give those couples what they wanted. To be married in the eyes of God, even though they could not live together in the eyes of society. Now that I’m of a romantic mindset, St Valentine is my hero.

Happy Valentine’s Day. Good luck with your writing—see you next week