Mountain Views News          Saturday, February 16, 2013

5

AROUND SAN GABRIEL VALLEY

 Mountain Views News Saturday, February 16, 2013 


THE ROOTS OF VALENTINE’S DAY

 By Christopher Nyerges

[Nyerges is the author of “How to Survive Anywhere,” “Self-Sufficient Home,” and other 
books. He leads self-sufficiency classes, and does a weekly podcast at Preparedness Radio 
Network. He can be reached at School of Self-reliance, Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041 or 
www.ChristopherNyerges.com]

 Every month, I attend 
the Arcadia Chamber of 
Commerce’s Government 
Forum. There is always 
an interesting guest 
speaker/s enlightening 
us with information on a 
very pertinent topic. We 
have had Supervisor Mike 
Antonovich educate us 
with important county 
issues, Secret Service agents 
alert us about counterfeit 
money, Steve Scauzillo give an update on the 
water situation, and Metro Line updates us, just 
to mention a few. At one of the meetings, I met 
Verena Somer. This remarkable woman is the 
principle consultant of The Service Advisors and 
a leading designer and proponent of the “Culture 
of Service Movement”. For over 25 years, she has 
worked with corporate and small business clients 
and is skilled at customizing “no cost” strategies 
and tools for promoting business access.

 At a meeting a few months ago, Verena was 
very excited about a book, U Touch I Tell. This 
book gives a very important message to children 
and is presented in a kid-friendly manner. Verena 
mentioned the author, Chi Hosseinion, would be 
at the Duarte Festival of Authors with her book. 
Chi herself was a victim of sexual abuse as a young 
child. The abuser was a friend of the family, so it 
was difficult for Chi to tell anyone about the abuse.

 In the Forward of “U Touch I Tell”, Dr. Polly 
Dunn, a child psychologist, mother of four, and 
founder of ChildPsychMom.com elaborates the 
book’s purpose: “to teach children how to respond 
if they are ever touched inappropriately by an adult 
or other child”. Dr. Dunn notes that “In this book, 
inappropriate touch is defined clearly as any part of 
a child’s body that would normally be covered by 
their bathing suit”. (This is a good description for 
children.) Dr. Dunn feels “the simple no-nonsense 
message of “U Touch I Tell” arms children with 
both knowledge and courage to tell someone 
if anyone ever touches them inappropriately. 
Children of all ages will be able to understand the 
message of this upbeat and empowering story.”

 For several years, I was on the Duarte Education 
Foundation and each year, we spent a long meeting 
going through ALL Duarte Unified teachers’ 
(Grades K-12) grant applications. What a variety 
of grants were given-from class sets of dictionaries 
for elementary students to buses for High School 
field trips to the Museum of Tolerance. I am sure 
ALL School District Foundations raise monies for 
various classroom needs, not just Duarte Unified 
School District. After purchasing U Touch I Tell, 
I begin to think,” Wouldn’t it be wonderful if sets 
of this book could be purchased for elementary 
classrooms, and a few days set aside each year to 
cover this topic?”

 For twenty-five years, I taught at Annunciation 
Catholic School. When I began, we had a few 
weeks set aside for the “Family Life” Program. In 
my last years, a program was adopted to cover the 
topic of sexual abuse. There were two large binders 
to cover grades K-8 and we shared the Program 
with Holy Angels School. Within these two large 
binders were lessons and worksheets to Xerox for 
Grades K-8. This undertaking was time consuming 
and costly, but it was for the safety of our children, 
so we were grateful to have the opportunity to 
provide this service.

 When Verena told me about the book, I became 
enthused also. After purchasing a copy, and 
reading the book, I thought it would be a great tool 
for teachers. An investment of a complete set of 
these books for lower grade classrooms would be 
great. The books are soft covered, the story is only 
28 pages, but the lesson it teaches is immeasurable. 
I am hoping that teachers from both public and 
private schools read this column, go on line and 
learn more about U Touch I Tell, become enthused 
and find out if this book-a great tool to teach a 
lesson- can be implemented in their school.

 A “U Touch I Tell Foundation” has been formed. 
It is a 501 (c)3 nonprofit with the distinct purpose 
to empower the community through prevention 
and awareness. It also is dedicated to providing 
platforms of support to children and victims of 
sexual abuse. Please go to www.UTouchITell.org 
for more information.

“What’s Going On?” 

News and Views from Joan Schmidt

U TOUCH I TELL: A MANDATORY 
LESSON FOR ALL CHILDREN


Every Sunday outdoors 
under a large 
banyan tree in Highland 
Park, there is a 
spiritual studies presentation 
on topics 
of current interest. 
The outdoor talks are 
sponsored by WTI (see www.wtinc.info for details 
and schedule of upcoming talks.)

Last Sunday the topic was Valentine’s Day, and everyone 
learned that there was a very real person 
– and possibly two – that this day is named after.

 February 14 is the day set aside to commemorate 
a real historical person named Valentinus. 
With just a little bit of research, we learn that 
this Valentinus person was stoned, clubbed, and 
beheaded in about the year 270 A.D. He was violently 
killed by an unruly mob. That’s the meaning 
buried there in that word “martyr.” But why? And 
how have we come to associate Valentinus with 
chocolates and hearts and lovers?

 It turns out that there were at least two 
people called Valentinus – possibly more – who 
lived in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries. One – who the 
Catholic Church now called Saint Valentine – was 
beheaded in 270 A.D. 

Another Valentinus lived about a century earlier 
and founded one of the most important sects of 
Gnosticism. He was born in Egypt and educated 
in Alexandria. He settled in Rome during the reign 
of Pope Hyginus and taught there for more than 
20 years. He attracted a large following to his beliefs, 
due in part to his intelligence, his eloquence 
of speech, and his impeccable arguments. 

But the teachings of this Valentinus differed in 
some ways from the Christian church of that 
time, and when the office for the Bishop of Rome 
opened up, he was not selected. Valentinus then 
chose to break off from the Christian church, left 
Rome, and continued to develop his doctrines as 
he saw fit.

There are no original surviving documents from 
the teachings of Valentinus. So, if you want to 
discover what he actually believed and taught, 
you have to study fragmentary quotations found 
in the writings of his orthodox Christian opponents. 


Through research, we learn that Valentinus was influenced 
by Plato (the main source of the teachings 
of Socrates), Zoroastrianism, and Christianity. 
Valentinus also spoke of a spiritual realm which he 
called Pleroma, which consisted of “emanations” 
evolving from an original divine being. These have 
been described as the layers of an onion, with each 
layer being a wholly complete reality. It’s all very 
interesting, though it’s all a bit second-hand because 
whatever Valentinus wrote was apparently 
“lost” or destroyed by opponents.

The term Gnosticism came from the word “gnosis,” 
defined as spiritual knowledge. Those who followed 
this line of study were called the Gnostics, 
and many were referred to as Christian Gnostics. 
But by the third century, the more orthodox Christian 
church (and the political power of the day), 
decided to oppose and persecute the Gnostics. By 
the end of the third century, Gnosticism as a distinct 
movement had largely disapppeared.

Now, here’s the quiz: Where in all this did you hear 
anything about chocolates, hearts, greeting cards, 
bunnies, jewelry, roses, or lace underwear? Plus, 
there doesn’t appear to be any historical connection 
with any of the individuals named Valentinus 
with the date of February 14.

It turns out that in the pre-Christian days, there 
was a celebration in honor of Lupercus, a pastoral 
god, sometimes identified with Faunus or Pan. 
Faunus is depicted as having the body of a man 
but the horns, pointed ears, tail, and hind legs of a 
goat. That is, Faunus is more or less identical with 
the satyr, who was said to be lecherous, lustful, and 
always ready to party.

The pre-Christian observance of this day was 
called Lupercalia, which fell on February 15. Most 
of what people do today in the name of “celebrating 
St. Valentine’s Day” has its roots in the ancient 
feast of Lupercalia. On Lupercalia, cards were 
given (often with subtle or overt sexual overtones), 
and men reportedly chased women through the 
streets (sounds somewhat like Mardi Gras).

It is difficult to ascertain why the commemoration 
of Valentinus was used to supplant, uplift, and supercede 
the already-existing commemoration of 
Lupercus, but that’s what happened. Yet, very little 
of the trappings of modern St. Valentine’s Day have 
anything to do with the historical Valentinus. 

And that’s really a shame, since Valentinus was 
as important as perhaps Socrates or Pythagoras, 
and yet most of us only associate him with the 
silly commercialism of Lupercalia’s remnants. 
Certainly it’s possible that the Church engineered 
this substitution so that people would elevate their 
practices on this day, though there is no evidence 
that that has happened.

 So rather than waste money and time on chocolates 
and red cards, why not take the time to study 
something meaningful about the great teacher 
Valentinus, or about the real meaning of that 
much-used word “love.” One excellent book in this 
regard is Eric Fromm’s “Art of Loving.” Once you 
get into it, you may discover – as I did -- that much 
of what he taught is very relevant today. 

paper
TOWN COUNCIL MEETING

Wednesday, February 20, 2013 

7:00pm – 8:30pm

The Monrovia Arcadia Duarte Town Council cordially invites 
you to attend our upcoming meetings scheduled on the 3rd 
Wednesday of every month.

Please join us and meet your Town Council members and 
learn more about the resources and information available in our community.

Representatives from the following offices will be available to provide reports and answer 
your questions:

. Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich
. Temple Sheriff’s Station
. Live Oak Public Library
. Monrovia Unified School District Board Members & Superintendent


We look forward to seeing you!

Wednesday February 20th 7:00pm

All Nations SDA Church

1948 Peck Road

Monrovia, at spanner

Please join us on Facebook

www.facebook.com/MADTownCouncil

P.O. Box 893 / Monrovia, CA 91017


NASA’s Deep Impact Spacecraft Eyes Comet ISON

 NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft has acquired its first images of comet C/2012 
S1 (ISON). The images were taken by the spacecraft’s Medium-Resolution Imager 
over a 36-hour period on Jan. 17 and 18, 2013, from a distance of 493 million 
miles. Many scientists anticipate a bright future for comet ISON; the spaceborne 
conglomeration of dust and ice may put on quite a show as it passes through the 
inner solar system this fall.

 “This is the fourth comet on which we have performed science observations 
and the farthest point from Earth from which we’ve tried to transmit data on a 
comet,” said Tim Larson, project manager for the Deep Impact spacecraft at JPL 
in Pasadena.

 
Deep Impact, launched in 2005, has executed close flybys of two comets, Tempel 1 and Hartley 2, and performed 
scientific observations on two more—comet Garradd and now ISON. The ISON imaging campaign is expected to yield 
infrared data, and light curves (which are used in defining the comet’s rotation rate) in addition to visible-light images. 
A movie of comet ISON was generated from initial data acquired during this campaign. Preliminary results indicate 
that although the comet is still in the outer solar system, more than 474 million miles from the Sun, it is already active. 
As of Jan. 18, the tail extending from ISON’s nucleus was already more than 40,000 miles long.

 Long-period comets like ISON are thought to arrive from the solar system’s Oort cloud, a giant spherical cloud of icy 
bodies surrounding our solar system so far away its outer edge is about a third of the way to the nearest star (other 
than our Sun). Every once in a while, one of these loose conglomerations of ice, rock, dust and organic compounds is 
disturbed out of its established orbit in the Oort cloud by a passing star or the combined gravitational effects of the 
stars in the Milky Way galaxy. With these gravitational nudges, so begins a comet’s eons-long, arching plunge toward 
the inner solar system.

ISON was discovered on Sept. 21, 2012, by two Russian astronomers using the International Scientific Optical Network’s 
16-inch telescope near Kislovodsk. NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office, based at JPL, has plotted its orbit and 
determined that the comet is more than likely making it first-ever sweep through the inner solar system. Having not 
come this way before means the comet’s pristine surface has a high probability of being laden with volatile material—
mostly water ice and dust—that will become a visible “tail” after it is heated by the Sun.

 ISON will not be a threat to Earth, getting no closer than about 40 million miles—a little less than half the distance 
from Earth to the Sun. But stargazers will have an opportunity to view the comet’s head and tail before and after its 
closest approach to the Sun in December—if the comet doesn’t fade early or break up before then.

You can contact Bob Eklund at: 
b.eklund@MtnViewsNews.com.


This is the orbital trajectory of comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). The comet is currently located just inside the orbit 
of Jupiter. In November 2013, ISON will pass less than 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) from the 
sun’s surface. The fierce heating it experiences during this close approach to the sun could turn the comet 
into a bright naked-eye object Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Left: Comet Lovejoy is visible near Earth’s horizon in this nighttime 
image photographed by NASA astronaut Dan Burbank, Expedition 30 
commander, on board the International Space Station on Dec. 22, 2011.