VALENTINE’S DAY 情人節

“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back.
Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone
becomes a poet.” ~Plato

Valentine’s Day is celebrated annually on February 14. It is a day on
which lovers exchange their truest love and deepest feeling, and celebrate
the spirit of love by presenting flowers, chocolates, gifts and cards as
well as romantic dinners. The pagan origins of Valentine’s Day commenced
with the Roman Feast of Lupercalia, a spring and fertility festival in
medieval times, celebrated in mid-February.

There is a popular legend regarding Valentine’s Day. Valentine was a young
priest rendering his service in Rome during the third century. Emperor
Claudius II engaged in many bloodshed military operations. Consequently,
young men were reluctant to join the military. The emperor believed that was
primarily due to the fact that married men were emotionally attached to
their wives and families and were unwilling to leave them to go to war. He
issued a decree that all marriages were prohibited.

Abhorring at the injustice, Valentine defied the Emperor’s law. He
continued to perform wedding ceremonies secretly. Claudius II imprisoned the
priest. During his incarceration, Valentine healed the jailer’s blind
daughter who visited him often. Eventually Valentine was executed on
February 14, 270 A.D., thus becoming a martyr. Before the execution, he sent
the girl a note signed “Your Valentine.” In 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius
declared February 14 to honor the priest who by then had been bestowed to
sainthood, the patron saint of lovers. The Pope celebrated St. Valentine
during the feast of Lupercalia due to the association of the martyred saint
with lovers and marriage; hence preserving the festival’s origins of
celebrating fertility.

Since our matrimony over four decades ago, my wife, Peggy, and I are still
head over heels in love with each other. 天不老，情難絕。心似雙絲網，中有千
千結。 Every day is our Valentine’s Day. 鶼鰈情深, 形影不離。It’s amazing
that I came from 8,000 miles away on the other side of the vast Pacific
Ocean and fell in love with a German-Hungarian descendant, despite our great
cultural differences. 張愛玲: “於千萬人中遇見你所遇見的人，於千萬年之中，
時間的無涯的荒野裡，沒有早一步，也沒有晚一步，剛巧趕上了. Among millions
of people, in millions of years and in the timeless, boundless wilderness,
you met the ‘one.’ It’s neither an instant earlier, nor an instant
later; but just in that right moment.” Fate brings people together albeit
thousands of miles apart. 有緣千里能相會, 千里姻緣一線牽。

For hearing my thoughts, sharing my dreams and being my soul mate; for
filling my life with happiness and giving me endless love, I said, “I do.”
結髮為夫妻，恩愛兩不疑。百年修得同船渡，千年修得共枕眠。Simone Signoret:
“Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny
threads which sew people together through the years. That is what makes a
marriage last.” Now those decades have passed, our souls have indeed become
one. Two hearts that beat as one; two souls with but a single thought. 身無
綵鳳雙飛翼, 心有靈犀一點通。 And love is composed of a single soul dwelling
in two bodies.

Holding hands, we grow old together. 執子之手，與子偕老。愿得一心人，白頭
不相離。 Nevertheless, there is one thing that will never change, we will
always keep falling in love with each other. We enjoy the serenity and
beauty of the life of our golden years. We indulge in cherishing those happy
memories of our past and relishing the nostalgic moments. We are still, arm
in arm, strolling down the long road, just as we have been walking the same
path for the past several decades. Luciano Decrescenzo: “We are, each of
us, angels with only one wing, and we can only fly embracing each other.”
在天願作比翼鳥, 願作鴛鴦不羨仙。

One day when we were young, we solemnly swore…. When we grow old, we would
be proud, because we would have fulfilled our vows that we would not part
until our deaths. 海枯石爛, 此情不渝。落花飛絮，生死相隨。願我如星君如月，夜
夜流光相皎潔。

Shakespeare: “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep. The
more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.”

上邪, 我欲與君相知，長命無絕衰。山無陵，江水為竭，冬雷震震，夏雨雪，天地合，
乃敢與君絕!

About the author:

Dr. Patrick Lau was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to the U.S. after high
school. He retired from the VA Northern Indiana Heath Care System where he
served as Chief Radiologist and moved to Florida with his wife in 2011. He
was an active member & contributor of IACA and ICMA while in Indiana. Dr.
Lau is also a scholar of art and literature and a prolific writer, he has
been a dedicated columnist for Indy Asian American Times since 2010.