365 Days of Earrings

Monday, February 14, 2011

A Day of Serendipity and Mystery

How serendipitous that today, Valentine's Day, when I needed to teach that triangle lesson I missed last week, I could wear my hearts dangling from triangles. But look, those shapes are not really triangles! There on today's math worksheet was that very shape--minus the heart, which my students drew on it along with the notation that this shape has too many sides, too many angles, and too many vertices to be a triangle. I wonder if this lesson will ever fall on Valentine's Day again?

I love the fact that the origins of this holiday and of its symbol are among the mysteries lost to history. Which of the three St. Valentines are we celebrating? No one knows for sure. Is the heart shape really based the seed of an extinct plant, an ancient method of birth control? Do we really care? Or do we just want a day to celebrate love at this time of year when winter lingers on and we anticipate that spring is just heartbeats away?

2 comments:

Käthe said...

Haha! I almost laughed out loud in the middle of Panera, where we are working, when I read "or do we really care?" Love you and it sounds like it was fate that led you to these earrings today.

Phoebe said...

This post is BEAUTIFUL. Serendipitous indeed, but it was you who made the connection which so many others might have missed :) Love you, love you, Mama, and you too, sista (who beat me to the post!). I hope your Valentine's Days were wonderful!