Love and Weddings: A Beautiful Day in Southern California

To all my faithful readers,

I've been neglecting my blogging this week due to happy events in my life. My youngest son is getting married today, and things have been hectic with visitors and preparations.

This is going to be an interesting event because my family and my soon-to-be daughter-in-law's family have diametrically opposed religious views. On their side of the aisle there's a strong dose of evangelical Christianity, and on my side we're mostly atheists, agnostics, deists and a few liberal theists. My son's bride, in this regard, fits more on our side of the aisle.

The great thing about this is that we all seem to be respectful of one another's views. We had a pleasant rehearsal dinner last night, had a nice time meeting new people, and some great conversation.

Weddings are a wonderful time when we can all put aside our differences and celebrate the love of two young people. It's a beautiful, sunny day here in Southern California, with a light breeze and mid-seventies temperatures. The Jacaranda trees are blooming, the grass is green, there are oranges hanging in the trees from the orchard behind the wedding platform, the bride is absolutely beautiful, and the groom is handsome and managing to stay composed.

It's going to be a great day. See you next week!

Your dutiful blogger...

Aaack! St. Valentine is a Fake!

I thought today would be great day to do a blog about St. Valentine. You know, my usual sarcastic stuff, maybe make a joke about how God wants you to be in love but not be lovers.

But to my dismay, I discovered that St. Valentine is a fake! He never existed!

Or more specifically, there were actually something like fourteen martyred saints in ancient Rome named Valentinus, which means worthy, strong or powerful (from valens). It was just a popular name, nothing more.

What's more, we know almost nothing about any of them. We don't know why the Romans