I've been trying to explain the point of Valentine's Day to the 2 11-year-old girls from Matènwa, Haiti who've come to live with us on Cape Cod.
This year was their introduction to all these "firsts". Their first bike ride, first Hallowe'en, first class filled with white kids, first snow, and now, first love holiday.
They are completely baffled by the idea, wracked with guffaws. You mean you give love letters and presents to folks who are not even your boyfriends!?
I reminded them that there are many kinds of real love: love for mothers, best friends, animals, home towns, love of oceans, of learning, of all that's good in the world...so much love to send out.
They're still puzzl
ed but are into the idea of chocolate and are slowly getting the idea of telling it out loud so to speak.. Woodmyha asks, "You mean I can give one to someone I might really, really have in my heart?"
They have so many they love who have no mailing address. I'm going to buy little valentines we can write to those friends and family (and ideas) we can't see and hang them on the live Christmas tree that's still in the living room.