Love Chat

Rory Bore at Ink Interrupted hosts the Tuesday Coffee Chat, and this week the topic is LOVE.   What, or Who are you lovin' lately?






There are a lot of people to love on here.

There's my Sweetie, who's been around for over 30 years.  What's not to love about a guy who sticks around and plays guitar and sings?

There are four children and a child-in-law and a foster child, and all of their wild and wacky and wonderful friends.  They keep me young!

Grandma and Grandpa and aunts and uncles and cousins live just over an hour drive away -- close enough for frequent visits.

We have great friends and neighbors, too.

There are pets to love on here.

Little Girlie is now the oldest cat in the house, at age 12.  We also have Horizon, SissyCat (a/k/a Tripod), Little Sissy (a/k/a The Charismatic Enigma SissyCat), Mikey, Dansig, and Link.

Then there's Pepe the Pup, the Chihuahua.  He and i have an understanding, i take him outside as many times a day as i can, and if he is a "good boy" he gets a treat.  He gets lots of treats.

We get to love on the cats at the shelter, too.

There is volunteer work we love to do.

Always there are more things we love and want to do than we have time for -- for example, i will  never get to the bottom of the reading list, and i love reading so much that's a blessing.

We are blessed with love in so many ways, and i am grateful.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!



Today is:

Bird Mating Season begins -- according to legend, in honor of St. Valentine

Blessing of the Salmon Nets -- Norham, Northumberland, England & North Shields, Northumbria, England (just before midnight, nets are blessed and right after midnight, the first nets of the season are thrown out; anything caught is presented to the officiating vicar)

Day Sacred to Juno Lupa -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Juno of the Wolf)

Extraterrestrial Culture Day -- New Mexico, US ("to celebrate and honor all past, present, and future extraterrestrial visitors in ways to enhance relationships among all citizens of the cosmos, known and unknown.")

Feast of Vali -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan (archer god, an Asatru answer to the Valentine celebration, which is really a thinly disguised Lupercalia)

Ferris Wheel Day -- birth anniversary of G.W.G. Ferris, Jr.

Fjortende Februar -- Denmark (Danish lovers send each other snowdrop flowers.)

International Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day

International Quirkyalone Day -- a day to value your individuality, whether you are partnered or not; for those who prefer to be single and not dating just for the sake of dating

League of Women Voter's Day -- US

Library Lovers Day -- for those whose favorite companion is a great book

National Call In Single Day -- what a lot of men who feel pressured to be romantic on this day wish they could do, i'm sure!

National Cream-Filled Chocolates Day

National Have-a-Heart Day -- to create awareness of the impact of our food choices on the environment, world hunger, animal welfare and human health—especially heart health

National Nest Box Week -- UK; US (begun in the UK, this is a week to build or put up a nest box in your yard to encourage our avian friends and give them safe places to raise their young)

National Organ Donor Day -- US, but no matter where you live, consider leaving instructions about this to your loved ones

National Sports Day -- Qatar

Race Relations Day -- originally on Lincoln's birth anniversary, now on the day promoting love

Rafik Hairi Memorial Day -- Lebanon

Read to Your Child Day -- to start their love of learning early (and do it daily!)

Sts. Cyril & Methodius' Day (Patrons ecumenism, unity of Eastern and Western Churches; Bohemia; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Europe; Moravia; the Slavic peoples)

Trifon Zarezan -- Bulgaria (Viticulturists' Day; since Thracian times, a day to celebrate Dionysus and wine)

Valentine's Day (St. Valentine of Rome, Patron of apiarists/beekeepers, betrothed couples, greeting card manufacturers, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, travellers, young people; Bussolengo, Italy; against epilepsy, fainting, plague)

World Ag Expo -- Tulare, CA, US (largest farm and equipment show in North America; through Thursday)



Anniversaries Today:

Jerry Garcia weds Deborah Koons, 1994
US League of Women Voters formed, 1920
Arizona becomes the 48th US state, 1912
Oregon becomes the 33rd US state, 1859


Birthdays Today:

Drew Bledsoe, 1972
Jessica Yu, 1966
Zach Galligan, 1964
Enric Colantoni, 1963
Meg Tilly, 1960
Renee Fleming, 1959
Raymond Joseph Teller, 1948
Gregory Hines, 1946
Carl Bernstein, 1944
Michael Bloomberg, 1942
Andrew Prine, 1936
Florence Henderson, 1934
Vic Morrow, 1932
Hugh Downs, 1921
Mel Allen, 1913
Jimmy Hoffa, 1913
Jack Benny, 1894
George Washington Gale Ferris,Jr., 1859
Winfield Scott Hancock, 1824
Frederick Douglass, 1817
Mary Ann "Aunt Mary" Prout, 1801


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Cloud Nine"(Play), 1978
The Maltese Falcon(Publication date), 1930
"Sinbad"(Musical), 1918
"Importance of Being Earnest"(Play), 1895


Today in History:

The annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg make the first known mention of Lithuania, 1009
Approximately 2,000 Jews are burned to death by mobs or forcibly removed from the city of Strasbourg, 1349
Roman Catholic emperor Leopold I chases the Jews out of Vienna, 1670
The United States Flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte rendered a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones, 1778
James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii, 1779
John Jervis and Horatio Nelson lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar, 1797
The apple parer is patented by Moses Coats of Downington, Pennsylvania, 1803
US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of the US Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void, 1803
The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio, 1835
In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken, 1849
Esther Hobart Morris is appointed the first female Justice of the Peace in the US, in South Pass City, Wyoming, 1870
A.G. Bell and Elisha Gray both apply for a patent for a telephone; Bell first by only 2 hours, and is ruled the rightful inventor, 1876
The first trainload of California grown fruit, oranges, leaves L.A. for the east,1889
Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections, 1899
The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar, 1918
The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago, Illinois, 1920
The Bank of England is nationalized, 1946
ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled, 1946
The Knesset (Israeli parliament) convenes for the first time, 1949
Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California, 1961
The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System are placed into orbit, 1989
Space probe Voyager 1 takes photograph of entire solar system , 1990
Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft becomes first vehicle to land on an asteroid (433 Eros), 2001
Love letters written between poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning are published online by Wellesley College and Baylor University, 2012

So, does putting others first make us wimps?

Depends. Do you think Messiah Jesus was a wimp?

Really, the Lord of the Universe gets on His knees and washes feet. That's not a wimp. That's power under control.

For the joy set before Him, the joy of being able to do what was best for us, He underwent torture.

We put others first, and we get joy in return.

Today is:

Feast of Damo

Legal Drinking Age Day

National Creme Brulee Day (Touche! Cafe au Lait! Creme Brulee! -- well, I guess you had to be there.)

National Junk Food Day (We need a day for that!?!)

National Tug of War Tournament Day

Schoelcher Day, French West Indies (Abolition of slavery.)

St. Lawrence of Brindisi's Day

St. Praxedes' Day


Birthdays Today:

Robin Williams, 1951
Cat Stevens, 1948
Don Knotts, 1924
Isaac Stern, 1920
Ernest Hemingway, 1899


Today in History:

The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is set afire by Herostratus, BC356
Pope Paul III begins the Sanctum Officium, an inquisition against Protestants, 1542
The English Fleet defeats the Spanish Armada, 1588
In what is considered to be the first true "showdown" of what is now called the "Old West", Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in the market square of Springfield, Mo., 1865
Sirima Bandaranaike becomes the world's first woman PM in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), 1960

What is love?

No, seriously, play along with the gag. What is it?

A warm, fuzzy feeling? A desire for someone? A fool's paradise? A pipe dream?

If we define love as God does, it is putting the best interests of the other ahead of the best interests of the self.

Easy to say, hard to do. We are selfish creatures, apart from God changing us and making it possible for us to be like Him.

We were created in His image, but the image is tarnished by sin. Sin is putting anything ahead of the agenda of God, and His agenda is to populate the universe with those created in His image and behaving like it.

So, how does this play out in marriage? The $64,000 question. It takes a lifetime to answer it, and most people don't give it the lifetime. They get married, they don't get their own needs met, they give up and try to find someone else. Tragedy.

The goal in marriage should be to meet the needs of the other, with God's help. Then trust that He will meet your needs, sometimes through your spouse, sometimes not. The trust has to remain in the times that your spouse does not come through.

What does this look like in marriage?

I can tell you what it does not look like. It does not look like a husband coming home, slumping down to watch tv, eat, ignore the family, then demand attention at bedtime.

It does not look like a wife ignoring him and the kids because she wants "me" time all the time.

It looks like sharing the burdens. All of them. Every day.

It looks like honor. Believing and acting as if the other is the most important person in your life, besides God.

It looks like self-control and patience when your spouse fails. Each of you will fail. It will hurt. Love says, I will be patient.

It looks like forgiveness. It looks like repentance. Turning away from the things that hurt each other, forgiving when it happens, working together.

It looks like kindness.

It looks like speaking your spouse's love language, even when, no especially when, it is not yours.

It looks hard. You know what? It is hard. It can't be done. Not in our own strength. That's why it also looks like two people leaning on the Lord of the Universe to make it possible.

Look at how He expressed that love. Every moment of the life of Messiah Jesus was an expression of that love. Think of it. From the moment of conception to the moment of death He put our needs above His own. He gave up parts of His "Godness" and eternally changed His unchangeable nature. It culminated in a horrible death that was a punishment beyond our ability to imagine. Yet, the Scripture says both that Messiah Jesus did it for the joy set before Him and it pleased the Father to do it. Not because of masochism, but to put the needs of the other, namely us, ahead of His own perfect Self.

Amazing. And also amazing that He can give us the ability to do these things for others.

When we put the needs of others ahead of the needs of self, we are showing God's love to others in a way they can understand. We become the hands of the Messiah, doing His will. Not to get in good with Him, but because He loved us first, and we want to take that love and give it to minister to the needs of others. To join in His joyful work, even though we do it imperfectly and incompletely.

When we do this in marriage, we show a picture of God to the world. A good picture, not the foolish picture most people paint when they think of Him.

Marriage God's way is hard. It is worth it.


Today is:

Binding of the Wreaths

Chess Day (I can't play that game. I know how each piece moves, but I can't plan ahead and execute the plan and be thinking ahead of what the other guy is planning.)

Moon Day (The Eagle has landed.)

National Get Out of the Doghouse Day

National Hug Your Kid Day (If you need to be told to do that, we need to talk.)

National Lollipop Day (Warning, stupid joke time: Did you hear about the fight at the candy store? Two suckers got licked.)

St. Elijah's Day

Ugly Truck Day (Must be a "guy" thing.)


Birthdays Today:

Billy Mays, 1958 (May he rest in peace.)
Sir Edmund Hillary, 1919
Alexander the Great, BC356


Today in History

The Riot Act takes effect in Great Britain, 1712
Colombia declares its independence from Spain, 1810
Tax Stamps are first used on cigarettes, 1868 (The birth of a cash cow.)
The surrender of Sitting Bull, Sioux Chief, 1881
Final home run for Hank Aaron, #755, off the Angels' Jerry Augustine, 1976