Sunday, February 14, 2010

Why Do We Never See Any Pigeon Babies? (My Valentine's Day)


So, I somehow came to a realization tonight after work that I, in fact have never seen a baby pigeon.
So I did some research.
While doing some googling I noticed the time was 3:30 am, and realized it was Valentine's Day and I was alone reading about pigeons babies on the internet. This kind of made me upset.
I wasn't upset because I was alone on this night/morning, I was upset because we have been trained to be upset in situations like this and the worst part? I don't even know why this "set yourself up for failure" holiday even exists.
So I did some research... and please, pardon my Wiki.
Ok, I'll try and avoid any disapproval for Christianity here(even though I can almost blame everything I hate on it) and give you the facts.
There were plenty of Christian martyrs named Valentine, but the ones honored on Feb 14 are Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni. Both of these guys were killed or martyred. Probably for trying to push Christianity to the wrong dudes. This was around 150 to 250 AD and had no significance to any kind of romance. By the time a Saint Valentine became linked to romance in the fourteenth century, distinctions between Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni were utterly lost. So with that said, either Valentine got his big break in the Legenda Aurea( a medieval book filled with fairy tale versions of Christian fairy tale stories).
Roman Emperor Claudius II had an army that he kept away from marriage in order to keep the young single men strong. Valentine was on the scene doing secret marriage ceremonies. When caught and interrogated the Emperor tried to convince the Saint to convert to Roman Paganism.... Apparently Valentine tried converting Roman Emperor Claudius II instead and he was not having it. He threw him in jail to await his execution. His blind daughter would visit his cell and one day he would cure that blindness. On the evening of his execution, the first "Valentine Card" was written and addressed to his "beloved", the daughter of the Emperor who he had befriended and/or healed. The note was signed, "From Your Valentine".
So there you have it.
So thanks to a couple hard-headed Christians who couldn't keep their mouths shut, us "involved" Americans are about to waste $17 billion on Valentines’ Day or us "un-involved", will be left feeling bad about sitting up reading about pigeon babies, as if there wasn't enough reasons for that already.
By the way, they hide their nests really well, over feed their babies, and keep them in the nests until they are basically the same size them. Sounds like a few of my friends.

XOXO

1 comment:

  1. Thank you. I have absolutely no affinity towards Valentine's day whatsoever and never have. People (mostly women )have tried to make me feel bad about that, insinuating that because I don't buy into the hype that my relationship with Joe is somehow flawed. You can't win.
    And I must say, I'm probably as guilty as a pigeon mom the way I've brought Dani up.

    ReplyDelete