Roses are Red, Sweaters are Blue

There’s a lot of talk on St. Valentine’s day about expressing our love everyday, and not having one or two special days.  I’m not sure I totally agree with that – wouldn’t our love then become washed out or even mundane?  Doesn't it need a jump start now and then?  We need special days.  

Romance was not lost on my former husband, but in all the years we were married, he never got me flowers for Valentine’s Day.  I grew all our flowers, thus the house was perpetually filled with vases of them. I'm not big on candy, so there's not a single Valentine's Day that really sticks out in my mind.  Every Christmas, however, he gave me a very special navy blue sweater.  J liked the way I looked in navy blue.  The sweaters were individual works of art from various designers whose very names earn them millions of dollars. Those kinds of things were important to J.  But the names in the sweaters didn’t matter.  The fact J picked them out himself, did.

J had impeccable preppy taste, so the sweaters he selected were classics – right out of those ads you see in magazines of lackadaisical rich kids sitting around on sailboats or equestrian fencing, casually wondering what to do with themselves, and not having to do anything but sit around on sailboats or equestrian fencing.

I still have 7 of those sweaters. The only reason I don’t have all ten of them, is because (1) was accidentally splattered with bleach, (2) shrank in the dryer, and (3) ran off with a few socks and didn’t even send a postcard.  But the 7 navy blue sweaters I still have -- range from a GAP ribbed knit pullover that had a distressed salt-air look even when J bought it 20 years ago, to a hand knit boutique cardigan that looks great with pearls and a skirt.  I cherish each one individually, and I still wear all of them.

Don’t they remind me of divorce and pain, you ask?  No, they remind me someone loved me enough to specially pick them out each year.  It was one thing in this crazy,  mixed up world, I could depend on.  J and I may have gone our separate ways years ago, but no one – not one single person in my entire universe since, has gone to the effort to select a classic navy blue sweater ~~ especially for me.