Serving the Towns of Wawarsing, Crawford, Mamakating, Rochester and Shawangunk, and everything in between
(none)   
SJ FB page   
 

Gutter Gutter
Editorial
On Valentines & Presidents' Day...

Valentine's Day engenders many feelings. There are many, married or long-time single, who find the whole idea of cupid, love notes and gifts, and overt declarations of love not to their taste, and maybe even hurtful. Kids see it with a shrug, unless they have a crush that they want to act upon. Or not. Many businesses hope it'll bring a splurge of diners to their soft-lit establishments, piles of flowery or choco-purchases. Many see it as a means of remembering what it was like back when it seemed one's emotions for someone else could reach out your chest and throttle you. Or still feel that way towards someone who's far away, unrequited, or saying they don't want your love anymore.

Then there are those of us who simply like to revel in thoughts about love. It fills so much of the music we love and cherish, many of the movies we remember best, much of the literature we've enjoyed, even when set forth in deeply complicated ways. It's the stuff of poetry, of great paintings and sculpture, of so much that marks our civilization, and our yearning for greater things.

For all the hurt tied up with Valentine's Day and cupid's arrows, there's equal amounts of sighing bliss to be remembered, or reenacted.

Best of all, as with all things involving the big concept that is Love, comes the many ways in which one can, and in many ways must, tie its specifics in our own lives — wanting and then cherishing another, be he or she family, friend or "lover" — to even larger, more esoteric ideas tied to the likes of religion and politics, or simply our lives in a society. It is there where the silliness of a Cupid runs headlong into the tricky traits of empathy, compassion, forgiveness, selflessness, and even godliness. Where faith and steadfastness, loyalty and honesty, really come into play. Not to forget those more vague concepts like love of country, and even God's love.

Which brings us to that other big holiday this week: Presidents Day. Which was once Washington's Birthday, on February 22. As well as Lincoln's, on February 12. Then conjoined into a holiday where kids learn to identify a few of the presidents well, and many not so well (and vice presidents and members of congress over the years not at all). Where are the big concepts in play with this one?

First off is the fact that, again in our schools (and a bit via silly commercials), Presidents Day encompasses a means of reminding people about the role presidents have played in our history. Which makes sense in a year like this when we've got so many still, at this point, vying to be included among the likes of Jefferson and the Roosevelts, or maybe Fillmore, Taylor and the Harrisons. Then there's the way it provides us with a mid-winter break, like our traditional holidays commemorating soldiers and our unions are supposed to do.

But unlike Martin Luther King Day, or even the likes of St. Patrick's, Earth or Bastille Day, such thoughtfulness may be lost come that third Monday each February, now. Last weekend, we heard much about how Super Bowl Sunday was like Christmas and Thanksgiving and several other holidays rolled into one. But we also heard much about Black History Month, a theme that's resonating more these days. And seems ripe for the role such events are destined to have as means for channeling our thoughts away from entertainment towards more robust ideas and needed reappraisals.

Enough to chew on? Not ready to consider Old Abe or George and Martha in actual love, bickering and making up year after year?

I step back and look at my ten year old's assignment, to make one valentine for all in his class at school, and another for someone special. Which has him thinking. Even lying in his bed playing music, dreaming of some third grader named Tamaya. Just as his friend's dreaming of Henrique. And I'm looking across the table at my wife, thinking back to past objects of desire and lost loves. Until I get up and walk over and give her a kiss on the cheek.

So goes real philosophizing. And love, big L or not.



Gutter Gutter
 


Gutter