For Joyce: Happy Valentine's Day

I heard today on the radio that divorce lawyers get about a 40% spike in business around Valentine's Day. I'm not sure what's up with that, but my guess is a lot of folks decide that what they have in their marriage isn't what they want. What do they want? I'm guessing romance of some kind. And today is the day that symbolizes all that.

I know it's a Hallmark holiday and all that other phony stuff, but romance is important. It helps seal the deal emotionally.

But finding the "right" person involves a whole lot of luck and fate. After all, we're not talking about rational choices here.

When individuals initially get together and form a couple, there's give and take on both sides. That never stops, but after awhile, in a successful, long term relationship, the individuals become secondary. The union or marriage itself becomes the living, vibrant, important thing. On this long road there have been curves and tunnels and switchbacks, but Joyce and I feel very lucky that we found each other and that our relationship has evolved to the point where we both understand that the union itself is the important thing. We do a little work on it every day.

Okay, enough of that.

Besides the pot of buttercups I bought her yesterday, here's two online Valentine gifts for Joyce today. A beautiful and unlikely love sonnet by Robert Frost, plus a song by Vince Gill.

The Silken Tent
by Robert Frost

She is as in a field a silken tent

At midday when a sunny summer breeze

Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,

So that in guys it gently sways at ease,

And its supporting central cedar pole,

That is its pinnacle to heavenward

And signifies the sureness of the soul,

Seems to owe naught to any single cord,

But strictly held by none, is loosely bound

By countless silken ties of love and thought

To everything on earth the compass round,

And only by one's going slightly taut

In the capriciousness of summer air

Is of the slightest bondage made aware.

Vince Gill: Look at Us