It’s gone from Val day, to Gal day, to Pal Day. Maybe, to cover all our bases, it should just be Enthrall Day — a day to celebrate, or at least wonder at, the mysterious force that attracts people irresistibly, ineluctably, and, more than occasionally inadvisably, to each other.
Is it true, as Camus said, that love can burn or last, but not both? Or that, according to Pascal, the heart has its reasons which reason does not know? Or, most hopefully, per the Roman poet Virgil, that love conquers all? Your correspondent would tell you if he knew.
But he admits to being partial to the advice from the man who wrote the book for the ages on the subject, Ovid, in his first century Art of Love: ” Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast. In the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.”
Maybe even an octopus.