Lupercalia, S.A.D., and Valentine's Day

My roommate this morning jokingly wished me a happy Single's Awareness Day before leaving for work. I laughed because he and I are in what we call "the same side of different boats." Pirate Facebook likes to refer to this status as "marooned," left alone on an island somewhere to perish? Valentine's day is parodied to no end in a culture of irony -- single people unite to watch scary or violent movies in protest against a day that singles them out for persecution. We the marooned imagine that all couples are happy, prosperous, and locked in a sweet love-embrace, and envy them with all the strength our poor battered and lonely hearts can muster. I remain unconvinced.

I'm feeling quite cheerful this morning; it's a Saturday which means I am not slipping into insanity in my attempts to wrangle first graders into some semblance of order. My Classics-department grad student friend Erin and I are going to get gussied up later this afternoon and then camp out for any available tickets to Eurydice, a play showing at KU. Thereafter, we'll eat dinner (options range from leftover ZenZero, lasagna, or taco soup, to a real restaurant affair), and go karaoke with her household (approx. 5), mine (approx. 1), their neighbors, my, and my roommate's work friends; there I will earnestly encourage the single people of the world to not stop believin'.

I worried about the hearts-and-flowers holiday a few days ago, and with some luck, the few random origami hearts I sent out to cousins and friends will make it to their new homes by today. Valentine's Day is fun because, if you can cheese it up and enjoy its ridiculousness (a theme, lately), you can escape the trapped feeling that goes with dwelling on what you don't have.

Because really, there is a great deal that we do have. Whether you are "anchored" or "marooned," it's a sunny Saturday (here, at least!) and the temperatures are above freezing (if just barely.. what happened, I wonder, to the mid sixties we were enjoying just a few days ago).

Which reminds me... Happy Lupercalia! If you aren't into the whole Hallmark-holiday aspect of things, and don't want to throw down extra dollars for fancy dinner, celebrate the Roman festsival of the Lupercal: get together a group of friends who are willing to run around town naked with you, whipping local girls with soft goat leather thongs. This will assure easy childbirth! Um, and encourage pregnancy.

Try not to get arrested. Nudity is illegal in most places. And, I'm not sure how they pulled it off in February in Ancient Rome. I mean, it was socially acceptable, but it was generally about as cold there as in the American South, to my knowledge. Right now, it's late afternoon and in the very low forties--and that's WITH global warming and recession playing into things, mind you.

I like Lewis Black's reasoning for why we get a holiday like this in February. With every day getting greyer and greyer, we need a splash of color. So put on your most garish of reds, a big smile, and even a goat hide (if that's what you're into), and spread a little love around today.