A Valentine to Truth and Love

If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.  - Alfred Tennyson.  

Stop!  In the name of Love.  The British Baron and poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson never wrote those words.  The romantic verse, which appears each February, like a weed growing through the internet, was not penned in the 1800's.  It is believed to have been written by a young American woman around 1974.  In tracing the provenance of the popular Valentine's Day verse, I discovered that it was written by Claudia Adrienne Demilia, under the pen name Claudia Adrienne Grandi.  Riding on Gardenias Embracing Rainbows was published by Blue Mountain Arts, publishers of greeting cards, poetry and illustrations.

Oh, bother.  All I wanted was a line or two of verse in celebration of this day of love.  Oh, bother...
That's it!  Winnie-the-Pooh is filled with wonderful, loving quotations!

As soon as I saw you, I knew a grand adventure was going to happen.  - A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Love and destiny!  Isn't that one of the most romantic lines?  It's a beautiful, optimistic quotation, however, Alan Alexander Milne didn't write it.  In this era of fake news, one also needs to be wary of fake verse.  Fact checking this quotation, I discovered it is one of many quotations falsely attributed to Milne.

Milne's books, written between 1924 and 1928, are children's classics.  In 1961, Milne's widow sold the rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh series to Disney.  Many of the quotations which we now see on posters and greeting cards were written after Milne's death, by Disney writers.

The original words are, "Christopher Robin was sitting outside his door, putting on his Big Boots.  As soon as he saw the Big Boots, Pooh knew that an adventure was going to happen".  Not something you'd write in a Valentine's card!

Love.  It's not rocket science.  People have been falling in love, and writing about it for thousands of years.  Even the world's most famous genius wrote about it...

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love. - Albert Einstein

Not exactly.  The Theoretical Physicist who wrote about the Laws of Attraction, had received a letter from someone who really didn't know anything about physics (or life), and wondered if standing on your head would somehow help people fall in love.  Einstein's answer, written in German on the pages of the letter, read, "falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do, but gravitation cannot be held  responsible for it."  Not something you'd like to write to your Valentine.

Still searching for words of love to write this Valentine's Day...and it comes back to my favourite little teddy bear:

How do you spell "love"? - Piglet
You don't spell it...you feel it. - Pooh

A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Truer words were never spoken.  Happy Valentine's Day to each one of you!

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.
Stop!  In the Name of Love:  Recorded by Diana Ross and the Supremes (1965), writers Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland Jr.
Truer words were never spoken:  William Shakespeare (Hamlet).