Reflections on being A Valentine Baby

Yep, tomorrow is my birthday. As people have been saying/asking me all my life, You're a Valentine Baby. I once thought that being a Valentine Baby made me special—that’s what my family always me. I was in college when I began to suspect that I wasn't special just because I was born on Valentine’s Day. My freshman dorm mate was also born on February 14^th. He was special, too, but not simply because he was a Valentine; he was special because he was a very unique man.

Through the years I have learned that every human being is special; it doesn’t matter what our birth date is. We are each unique, special, distinctive, extraordinary creatures. I like it that way, for I have met many unique, special, distinctive, extraordinary, and, admittedly, weird people in the almost 67 years that I have walked this earth.

Many years ago I read Greek-Georgian mystic G. I. Gurdjieff's unique book, Meetings with Remarkable Men. Gurdjieff calls the men he met “Seekers of Truth.” As I encountered these men, I began to realize that their remarkable nature was that they were alive and aware of the lives they were living. We humans generally live our lives asleep, are unconscious of ourselves, behaving as if we were machines, subject to copious peripheral forces. Each of Gurdjieff's remarkable men was conscious of his spiritual journey through life—of the spiritual destiny to which he was born.

In my life I have encountered many people whom I would describe as “remarkable” in the same manner in which G. I. Gurdjieff used the term. I believe some—maybe many—would be surprised that I should describe them as such. . But I have learned some vital life skills from my encounters with such women and men, just a Gurdjieff did.

And, guess what! At least 3 or 4 of those people were born on Saint Valentine’s day!