St. Valentine’s Day is anon. I found myself wondering about this saint and his day. I have mixed feelings about the day itself; it brings joy to so many, and for the same number of humans, it likely brings despair and an echo of loneliness. Of course, there are many nuances of feeling for this celebration, and throughout my life, I’ve felt many of them. With sadness, I remember my father regaling a story of St. Valentine’s Day when he was a boy at school and how a lack of Valentine cards broke his tender heart.
St. Valentine the brave
Recently, one of my dearest friends found herself at the Whitefriar Church in Dublin, Ireland, where there is a “small, tinged vessel” of St. Valentine’s blood. It arrived in 1836, a gift from Pope Gregory XVI. Relics of St. Valentine can be found all over the world, including a flower-crowned skull of St. Valentine in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome. In past years, I’ve been annoyed by St. Valentine’s Day, as it has become such a consumerist holiday, yet today, when I read about him, I was moved. He was beheaded on February 14 for aiding persecuted Christians. He was beaten, tortured for his faith, and ultimately murdered. St. Valentine stood bravely for what he believed.
Jackie Robinson the brave
Also in my inbox today was the wonderful 28 Days of Black History. Every day, I receive a gorgeous missive about Black History, and today it was about the great Jackie Robinson. His story of courage in the face of hate stopped me cold. Did you know that he was court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a segregated bus while stationed at Fort Hood, Texas? That he continually met hate and violence on and off the field? Players slid into him, cleats out. And yet he persevered, standing for civil rights as a world-class athlete and a human being. In his first year with the Dodgers, he won the inaugural Rookie of the Year Award and was eventually the first Black player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I deeply respect this courageous and gifted individual, who consistently upheld his principles throughout his life. I had no idea he died at the young age of 53. He was another human, like St. Valentine, who had suffered the horrors of oppression.
Americans, can we be brave?
How can we, this human race, continue these horrors of oppression and violence? Haven’t we outgrown this outdated path? I am deeply saddened by the loss of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti. It leaves me stunned to witness how oppression persists, empowering those with harmful intentions. In the names of Jackie Robinson, St. Valentine, Renee Nicole Good, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, and legions more, I will continue to do all I can to protect every individual’s opportunity to live a healthy life. I send you love and the courage to do the same, to pursue a healthy life every day.
Brave words
I find myself returning to the end of a much longer poem, The Testing Tree, by Stanley Kunitz:
In a murderous time, the heart breaks and breaks and lives by breaking.
It is necessary to go through dark and deeper dark and not to turn. I am looking for the trail. Where is my testing-tree?
Give me back my stones!