A love of learning

A few years ago, my big brother, Danny, told me this story about Valentines Day, and I've chosen to believe it about this day ever since.

Valentines Day didn't start with romantic love at all. The very first Valentine was written some umpteen years ago, when a woman wasn't supposed to know the same things as a man. Probably some time in a century when they would even kill a free-thinking man, like Socrates.

Still, there was a young woman who sought a tutor of her own. In secret they would meet under a tree on a hill where he taught her how to reason, read books and world maps, and he taught her the rhetoric of politicians and scholars.

It wasn't long before the girl's father found out. This being a punishable and scandalous crime, the man was sentenced to die. On the day of his execution he sent the girl a note, which was, in fact, the very first Valentine.

On the front was a hand-drawn picture of a tree where they used to sit, with the following words on the inside:

"Never stop learning. Never stop growing."

Thank you to all of my Valentines, past and present. I'm so glad you won't be "offed" for what you've taught me.