Happy V Day!

song du jour: It's Only Paper Moon, Ella Fitzgerald

mood: hmmm

When students ask me if spirals are structurally necessary to doing Russian filigree, I tell them "No, but... yeah. Try them for now to learn the technique and then venture out," but what I really want to answer is that spirals are the ultimate metaphor shape for Life. We believe life is circular and cyclical, but, like our solar system in the Milky Way, where we come back around to is never the exact spot we were last time. Seasons return, but the year changes, and so do we.

Nothing reminds me of this discovery more than holidays, as mine have been co-opted not into the grown up dreams of my childhood, but of childhood itself. Forget the dozen reds. I'm surrounded by cut out hearts with crayon embellishments, homemade heart cookies, and the same Snoopy and Woodstock valentines that I would beg my mother to buy each year of elementary school. (Do today's overly sophisticated 6th grade girls even give those out anymore?!?)

I don't mean to be cynical, but the years of obligatory though sometimes fun Valentine's dinners when I was married seem, in retrospect, more about frantically rushing to make a dinner reservation or waiting 2 hours for tables than about romance. Then again, for nearly half my life this day has been more about selling my work than being on the receiving end of a jewelry box. (Woe to the man, who is clueless enough to buy me someone else's work, let alone some dreadful, commercial, bad bling.) Attention and thoughtfulness are great, perhaps more so now that they come in the form of skinny little arms flung around my neck and cookies thrust in my face when I'm trying to blog, and I wouldn't trade the way things are for anything.

Whatever your plans or lack thereof I wish you, from the box of Peanuts cards, the valentine I saved for my best friend or silliest crush, the one with Snoopy hugging Woodstock. Happy Valentine's Day!