Valentine’s Day

A Broadway show in the 1930’s featured a song by a girl who realistically assessed her boyfriend’s ugliness and ineptness, and then sang: “But don’t change your hair for me, not if you care for me. Stay little Valentine, stay! Each day is Valentines day.” In a day when some couples find it hard to stay together, it’s refreshing to rediscover this old song about real love which accepts the other person just as he/she is. And how about these lyrics from Billy Joel: “I said I love you and that’s forever, and this I promise from the heart: I could not love you any better–I love you just the way you are.”
I’ve recently read about more than one couple that has been married for 72 years or more. How is that possible? Each of them decided to live by the “Paul Newman principle,” a phrase I made up on the basis of a quote from him that I heard during an interview. He was asked how he and his wife could stay together so long in Hollywood, and his reply was, “A deal’s a deal.”
Happy Valentine’s Day. It’s a good time to reflect upon romantic love, but also all the loves in your life. Here’s a little encouragement to do so:
“When I would fret and grumble, fiery hot,
At trifles that tomorrow are forgot.
Help me consider, Lord, how it would be
If these, my loved ones, were not here with me.”