Yin & Yang of Valentine’s Day
By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer
There are two reasons for revealing the following. The
first is the concept of yin and yang in relation to Valentine’s day. Yin
and yang, of course, are principles that oppose one another in their
actions. Sort of like a good screwball comedy.
So. In love there is the attraction, and repulsion, the on
and off, the passionate and the inert, the hot and the cold.
Express photos by Willy Cook
The second reason is that we, (being caring folks of an
empathetic nature), want to give some attention to those who are not being
focused upon the whole of Valentine’s Day. Singles, or at least single
wannabes.
For your perusal then, we present the yin and yang of the
day of love, Valentine’s Day.
Take your aphrodisiacs!
Yin
Kava Kava, a popular beverage with Pacific Islanders
in traditional fertility and passion ceremonies for the past 3,000 years,
is said to induce a sense of well-being, and more importantly, a desire
for love. It can be found in tablet, powder or liquid drops form.
Lemon balm added to a bath while sipping lemon balm tea,
or for men, a rosemary infused bath, is said to be stimulating.
Milk, licorice and honey play a central role in many
recipes, while wine infused with violets is considered an aphrodisiac.
Believe it or not, Catherine De Medici was considered scandalous by the
French court for eating large quantities of artichokes.
The eating of both chocolate-covered strawberries and
grapes while sipping champagne is a tried and true turn-on. One man I know
thinks peeling an orange particularly sexy, for the anticipation and slow
methodical unwrapping aspect, to say nothing of the juice inside.
For something less obvious, add a spare amount of fresh
lavender to various sauces, such as hollandaise. The way to a man’s
heart and all of that? A fresh parsley and cilantro pesto pasta is
invigorating and zesty. Take 2 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons virgin olive
oil, mix all in food processor, add pignoli nuts and toss over angel hair
pasta. The new Bagel Place in Ketchum will be making heart- shaped bagels
on Feb. 13. Pick up a couple for breakfast in bed on Valentine’s Day,
don’t forget the cream cheese, lox and sexy little capers.
Yang
If you want to avoid the entanglements of Valentine’s
Day, ingest garlic, onion, poppy seeds or spinach. Make sure the latter
two remain in your teeth. Chew tobacco, devour buffalo wings and don’t
wipe your mouth. Something about liver is fairly unsexy, as are tongue,
brain and other organs.
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Other Valentine’s Day activities might include a
romantic hike. Yin: Go out Chocolate Gulch. Yang? Try the dump in Ohio,
(gulch, that is.)
Les Fleurs? Red roses are for a lover, yellow for a friend
and white is for purity. However, if you give white and red roses it means
unity.
Yang flowers? Its hard to imagine a worse bouquet, to
receive or send, as the lantern stinkhorn, which has the odor of fresh dog
feces, unless you can find the large, flesh-colored Stapelia gigantea
which smells like a rotting carcass, both of which also attract green
bottle flies.
Oust that stinky image and picture instead your sweetie in
the lingerie you picked out.
The yin is obvious. Short slinky negligees are as
beguiling to wear as they are to give.
Then there’s the yang approach. Oversized flannel
nightgowns, or large, matronly, white cotton underwear either worn or
given will do the trick fairly well.
Put some music on the stereo while making your Valentine
that pesto (wearing the negligee of course). We suggest the inimitable
Frank Sinatra-- Songs for Swingin’ Lovers. For the opposite state
of mind try Frank’s equally good but big bummer album In the Wee
Small Hours.
Later, cuddle up in front of a movie. If you’re in a
relationship viewing choices might be: Chocolat, Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon, and (the soon to be released) Original Sin, or
rent Don’t Look Now, Last Tango in Paris, The Double Life of
Veronique or The Lover.
Yang flicks currently playing are Hannibal, The Gift, even
Traffic, which has the put-down line of the century made by Michael
Douglas to his wife, "I drink [when I get home] so I won’t be bored
to death."
Or if you’re alone or angry and feeling betrayed give a
look at these rentals: Stepford Wives, Diary of a Mad Housewife, War of
the Roses, The Shining and An Unmarried Woman or one of my
favorites, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.
Love spells are an intriguing possibility. The simplest
one is to write exactly what you want on a piece of paper. Put it
somewhere you will see it every day. It will happen.
Or, try this old Gypsy spell. To attract love to you--take
a pink candle, red ribbon, an apple, a red rose and a white rose. They are
all governed by Venus and symbolize life, blood and passion.
Light the candle, and cut the apple in half. Put the roses
in two vases of water on each side of the apple halves. Look into the
candle and contemplate someone you love or the desire for someone. Say
aloud "May the love that I wish for now come true."
Using the ribbon, tie the apple halves together, place
both the roses in one vase, and blow out the candle. Bury the apple
outside, perhaps in your garden. When the roses fade, bury them together
as well.
Alternately, write the name of a person you want to rid
yourself of on a large stone, wrap it in straw, as straw represents
emptiness, and throw the stone into the river.
Life is simple---do no harm, accept love where you find it
and return it in kind. Valentine’s Day (hokey and contrived as it may
be) inspires us to throw some color into the path of that simplicity.
If you’re of the alternate state of mind, there’s a
song whose lyrics you should sing with authority all day: Loudon
Wainwright III’s I’d Rather be Lonely.
