14 February 2008

Post #26:  A "surprise" Valentine

Valentine’s Day, 2008.  (ed. note: this blog post is by Dave)

February 14 started as so many other days in Malta have for me – with a seven minute walk to the pick-up point for my ride to the College – MCAST, as it is known.  It was cool, for Malta – you could see your breath  - but the bright morning sun really does wonders for the soul.

I sit waiting on a corner in a heavy residential area – I guess it’s all “heavy residential” here – resting my buttocks on a short piece of railing.  From this vantage point of the “T” intersection I can see in all three directions - which is unnecessary in that my friend and driver Conrad always emerges from his home below me – to my left.  But I like to people watch, between grabbing paragraphs from whatever book I happen to be carrying.

This morning I was reading an excerpt from _The Singularity Is Near_, a book I’ll be referring to extensively in presentations at MCAST, the University of Malta, and the U.S. Embassy in the near future.  [I happened to be reading a section where Kurzweil describes how in today’s society, human sex has been largely removed from its role in reproduction.  That’s just one of the alarming but true observations / predictions he makes in the book.] 

Two figures come up the hill from directly in front of me, and I recognize them as the elderly couple I have seen several times this week.  As we make eye contact a smile has already formed on my face.  They are just so cute I can’t help it.  I’d put them in their late 70s.  She is wearing a warm fleece jacket and he a heavy flannel shirt over the top of his sweatshirt.  As they approach I offer up “Good Morning!”  And they reply in kind.  Having seen them in the same place at the same time on different days of the week, my question is “Going to Mass?” “Coming home,” she corrects.  I say “How nice.  What a beautiful morning, huh?”  And they agree, nodding, and smiling. 

Observing my open book, she asks “Are you praying?”  To which I glance embarrassedly at my book and say “No, guess I should be.  Just reading a bit.”  Kurzweil would be happy to hear she thinks of the Singularity book as a book of prayer.

I turned to the gentleman and ask “How long have you been married?”  He ponders a bit – I think he’s figuring out how to translate his immediate response from Maltese into English – and says something like ‘May 17, 1953.’  I say something like ‘May 17, 1953’ because I don’t remember the exact date, of course, but I do remember he told me the date of his wedding rather than the length of his marriage.  I said, “Oh my, 55 years.  How wonderful!”  And they both nodded again, smiling through brown, wrinkled faces.

I extend my hand towards him and say “My name is David.”  He smiles and says simply “Joseph.”  I turned to her and she put her hand out to mine, saying, “I’m Mary.”  I cannot suppress another broad smile.  After I told them how pleased I was to meet them, she bids me farewell and I wish them well – “have a nice day!” and they continued up the sloping street towards home.

Sometime later it occurs to me that it is Valentine’s Day and I have just been presented with a very nice “valentine” of love – two people who’ve been married 55 years and very happy to announce it to the world.  Praise God!

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