February 14: Stealing Kisses, St. Valentine's Day, New Cartoon

Leavng Macy's, they spent an hour walking uptown and lingered by the Rockefeller Center ice-skating rink, on the promenade, directly across from the bronze statue of Prometheus reclining, the great tree, a Maine pine, some fifty feet high and as wide as a house, covered with thousands of lights, towering cheerfully over the scene.  Down below, a hundred skaters, of all ages, circled the ice, some gracefully as professionals, others clumsily, their faces and twisting bodies in colored caps and suits, vivid in the surrounding floodlights.  Leaning against the railing, Annie and Ives were caught up, as were so many others, by the romance of the setting, and, ever so happy, held each other tightly, nudging one another with their chilled noses and stealing kisses, until laughing, she said, "Oh, Eddie, you make me feel like a kid again."

Ives and Annie love each other. Deeply.  In just a couple of pages, their son, Robert, will be dead, and they will be thrown into an entirely new universe.  Grief will be their guiding star for years.  Ives will wallow in sadness, and, eventually, Annie will contemplate leaving him.  But she doesn't.  Her love is too strong for Ives.  She holds on, praying and hoping that her husband will make her feel like a kid again.

It is St. Valentine's Day.  A blizzard has been tearing through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan all day long.  The civil authorities issued a warning, telling people to stay off the roads.  I've lived here most of my life, except for a brief sojourn in Kalamazoo, and I can't remember that ever happening before.

Of course, that did not stop my wife and I from having a lunch date this afternoon.  We went to a local restaurant and ordered cheese soup and cheesy pretzels and hot chocolate spiked with peppermint schnapps.  And we talked.  We hardly ever get a chance to sit across from each other and just talk.  I'm not sure it made us feel like kids again, but it felt really good.

We've been through a lot together.  This year will be our twentieth anniversary.  It hasn't all been roses and chocolates, as long-time disciples of this blog know.  We've had separations and close encounters with divorce.  But, through it all, I've always held on to this:  the young girl I met over 25 years ago.  How I looked at her and immediately felt like I'd never be the same again.

Saint Marty wishes all his disciples a happy Valentine's Day.

Confessions of Saint Marty