Names. We all have one, many of us get the chance to name another, and Shakespeare couldn't get enough of them.
Anna, the name I use to tell my stories, is an English name meaning �Gracious�, probably from the Hebrew name Hannah meaning �Grace, Charm and Mercy�. My real name is Hebrew for �Bitter�, and although a very famous blond actress used it, it never felt right to me. I much prefer the one I have now which is French for �Victorious People� and became mine at 21 � apropos, as that was about the time I took charge of my own future.
So names are important. And so, I think, are their meanings.
Today we celebrate Valentine�s Day, a name which means �strength and honor�. Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome and may have sent the very first Valentine. When the Emperor decided single men made better soldiers, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice, performed marriages in secret. When discovered, he was sentenced to death. Valentine fell in love with a young girl who visited him in prison and, before the sentence was carried out, wrote her a letter, signed �From your Valentine.� Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D.
An estimated one billion Valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. So, in honor of this very ancient, and very romantic, holiday.....
Happy Valentine's Day. May your life never be a prison - of your making, or of anyone else's.
**most of this entry originally appeared 2/14/06 in this space. But it still applies.
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