A Walk into the Parks: An Invitation to the 'Other' Woman

The myths about today are incessantly varied, but a popular biography of Valentinus, the Saint, holds that he performed weddings for young soldiers who were albeit forbidden to marry because Emperor Claudius II believed unmarried soldier were better. He performed the ceremony of matrimony for this young love birds at the perils of his and their lives, and ultimately martyred because he believed in the supremacy of LOVE.

I choose to tell you this story to begin my invitation to you for a walk into the imagined future reality we can create. Not many words come to me now yet I'm flooded with unending thought of what I want to write. Three thoughts pierce my fingers into the keyboard however:

1. The Call for Confidence. The story of Valentine licks courage for confidence steadily into our thoughts. Conflicting convictions are always the reality, thus the learning of this lesson is a human need. An emperor with all his clout, power and affluence gets convinced of a 'finding' about 'The age of celibacy and the hidden military powers.' A research topic he may have poured energy, time and resources into. In the interest of the Republic and the safety of Rome he holds a confident opinion of his no marriage for the young men policy. Conflicting as opinions will always have it, a priest who obviously is in a minority group, has little authority if any, gets convinced of the exact opposite idea. Hold opposing ideas and loose the head which bears that conviction was the mantra of Valentine's day. The young priest, however, audaciously assert the torch of confidence in the gloom conviction of the emperor choosing faith to rescue romantic love so he may die.
2. Assail your Mast to Catch the Wind. Uncertainties remains the common denominator for every conviction. Wherever confidence may direct will not exclude us from the icy hands of the unknown.We may have glimpses of the future but purpose as it is will only be understood in hindsight. The unknown is not necessary the enemy of the young and confident. Let us hold to stretch our wings together, firmly confident of this one thing, that we will harness the winds unto purpose's end.
3. Posterity is the Judge. Claudius II and Valentine has been left to history to see who they crown hero. We may makes small seemingly unimportant decision for love but it is our great grandchildren who will judge the wisdom of our choices today.

I write this to invite you to walk with me in the confidence of all you are, brace yourself to sail with me in all the times that may come. I invite you to a family of an example under God full of love and purpose. I can but end in the words of one who could express it better in his Sonnet XVIII.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee."

- William Shakespeare