Is love real or a necessity? Is there really such a thing as magic? Come on Valentine’s Day photo journey

We all know love is in the air on Valentine’s Day. But what IS actually in the air? Today, we will not only research it, but we bring you photographic evidence that is is real. And open up the possibility that answers for our problems today lie in our souls, not just our brains.
I discussed this subject with a woman who was suffering from mental illness on the magical day a few years ago.
“Valentine’s Day has magic. You can see and feel the power of love right here, if you can get out of your own head, she told me. And its not just for lovers, the lovings spread somehow to all, or so I have felt year after year.
She sees too much, feels too much, and her mind has been injured by others and the traumas of this world. On the 13th, as we sat together and watched, we both felt gloomy. We watched a host of others, helpers and other ill people. Spirits were low that day. Then we watched things get better. She had much more hope she could get better. My head was full of dreams of good and fun stuff I could do the next day. The “air” was absolutely lighter. But what does that mean? Can it be proven?
We joked about how many times I have hit my head on door jams and ceiling fans in my life, a frequent topic of conversation for me, lol.
The same thing happens to her on a regular basis.
“My soul is too big for my body, and it keeps hitting its head too,” she said, with a laugh.
People who think differently are the only solution to the mess the world is in today.
Blessings on her and all those seeing clearly through the glass of reality. Unfortunately, the system is designed by straight, angry, judgmental thinkers, from a background of self-righteous Euro-American manifest destiny colonizers. I wish i could help, but I honestly don’t know what practical things can be done any more than the rest of them do. We have to change the way society thinks first. We have to educate people about the dangers of competition and the endless modern quest to be normal and in the middle of the herd. We have to take care of everyone and listen to everyone, not marginalize them.
She believes that the magic in Halloween (her favorite and among mine), July 4, Christmas and Thanksgiving are undeniable. I do too but the whole notion is ridiculed, and there is no way to even study what we were conversing about. Matters of faith, hope and love are beyond the reach of science, especially social science.
But what about today, a rainy Saturday, February 15? How do we all find magic and strength? I don’t know where she is by now, these years later. I hope in a better place.
How do we bring magic when we get derided for “magical thinking” when we try?
And it’s not as if the “real world” makes any sense now.
Everything we do now is actually magical thinking; just look at politics and the hateful propaganda of the culture wars that millions accept as fact. Magic is far more real than what most of us believe. It’s more real than our money, more real than the line drawn between the United States and Canada. It’s much more real than the idiotic concept we dedicate our work to, that the market has an “invisible hand” that sanctifies the horrific behavior of corporations.
The “real” St. Valentine existed and lived roughly 1800 years ago. There are no records of him, no proof of his flesh and blood existence. But the magical stuff about him making us all love each other longer and deeper oneday of the year, that’s reality. . One scholar believes he has confirmed that St. Valentine was indeed a priest who performed Christian weddings outlawed by the Roman Empire and was executed for it. Father Valentine died for love. (Later, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, and pagan weddings became illegal)
Valentine’s Day has been the holiday of love, romance, lust, and sex since the 14th century, likely longer than that. Cupid, the Roman God of love, lust, and romance, first appeared in artworks at that time.
In 380 AD, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and Roman gods like Cupid were outlawed.
In AD 496, Pope Gelasius I established Feb 14 as a holiday (then called a feast day) to honor the martyred Saint Valentine. Cupid and Father Valentine were destined to share the holiday for the next 1530 years. The god and the priest were together blamed for the sexual hijinks that took place on what was supposed to be a religious pilgrimage in Geoffrey Chaucer’s poetry in the 1380s.

Stop for a second!

This is very funny to a nerd like me. Here was St. Valentine, executed for defying Roman gods like Cupid and marrying eager Christian lovers. Later, the Roman gods became illegal in the Roman Empire. . Cupid was the eternally naughty teenage son of the goddess Venus and an unidentified mortal man she rendezvoused with. Now Cupid was illegal and Father Valentine’s church was in charge So what happens, the two figures from once-banned religions gang up, not to preach or spread any doctrines but to get people to make LOVE! Popes and emperors can make rules against love all day long.

But love is more powerful than empires and religious authorities. It will overcome those who try to squelch it. More kings and queens have fallen from Cupid’s arrows than from real ones. And thank goodeness there are always some who want to help us not just love one another, but make love to one another.

The mostly naked and naughty Cupid and the martyred Catholic saint together have facilitated a lot of bouncing beds over two millenniums. Greeting cards portraying Cupid aiming his love arrows at bashful couples on Father Valentine’s feast day became popular about the time a young surveyor named George Washington was surveying the Wild West (which was then Kentucky and Tennessee). Grumpy old Congress has always refused to make it a national holiday.
Despite the best efforts of the deniers of the reality of Cupid and Father Valentine, these two guys are more real than horrific AI or any of these dreadful paid influencers on the Interne. We believe the invisible arrows of love do fly. We know it. We felt them on the magic day!
Earlier on Saturday, Feb. 14, Linda and I had experienced the magic of Valentine’s Day. We argued at first but when we went out together, the love rolled over us. Of course, the happy dogs always help We went to the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. There a couple who literally frolicked. There were other happy couples, at least 10 of them. The love arrows bounced off them and onto us. Plus, Caesar gave kisses to many of the couples. He may actually be Cupid!.
Come with us on a photo story!