The First Valentine

"The story of Valentines Day begins during the heyday of the Roman Empire, which held a festival every February. This Lupercian Festival was held in honor of the God of Fertility and during the festivities young men would get to choose their mate. At the time marriage was a common occurrence, but when Claudius became Emperor he changed all of that. Fearing that men would refuse their duty to fight because they would not want to leave their wives behind, he outlawed all marriages. Young couples still fell in love though and still wished to marry and they took these desires to the Catholic Bishop Valentine who, understanding love, began to secretly marry couples. When Claudius found out, he had Valentine arrested and ordered put to death. While waiting in jail, Valentine began exchanging letters with the jailer’s daughter and soon had fallen in love with her. The day he was to be beheaded, he wrote her one last note and signed it: ‘From Your Valentine’." (from Google)

The jailer's daughter and Valentine only knew each other by the letters they wrote to one another. Their love blossomed.

That's the power of the written word.

Mark Twain once said, "I can live for two months on a good compliment." Perhaps this Valentine's Day we can follow Valentine's example and Twain's advice and write out a few compliments and present them to our spouse. So often we think the good thoughts, Valentine's is a great day to express them.

Just think, if Mark Twain had beaten Valentine to the punch and written out a few good compliments to his wife, he could have invented Valentine's Day...but would that mean we would have to call it 'St Twain's Day'?!