CONSTANCE NEVER GAVE UP HOPE

This is a very brief note to remind you of three things you already know. Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, but really these reminders are for every day of the year.

1. “There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time,” as Edmund Bertram remarks in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. Forget for a moment that Edmund is attempting to rationalize his infatuation with the morally shallow but alluring rival to our heroine, Fanny, and just take the dictum at face value. Call it Galentine’s Day if you will, but keep in mind that romantic love is just one of MANY forms of love (don’t forget your dog, or cat), and there’s no hierarchy or judgment when it comes to love.

2. If you are looking for romantic love, then please remember that you are not too old and that it is never too late. My mother fell in love again at 70 with a gentleman who was 89 at the time, which was fully 19 years older. Not only that, but they had 18 years together before he passed away last year at the grand old age of 107. As for me, I found the love of my life at long last in the realm of what is vaguely and respectfully called “a woman of a certain age”, but at which age precisely I will not disclose for the sake of vanity. And my husband was three years older. So, it’s not too late.

3. Never give up hope. This is Constance, whose full title is, in fact, “Constance Never Gave Up Hope,” inspired by the quiet patience of Anne Elliot, heroine of another Jane Austen novel, Persuasion, as well as by the steely and hopeful determination driving Jane Eyre as well as many of Shakespeare’s Sonnets.

   She’s a Valentine’s Day card gift for you, so please right click the image, download, print on heavy-ish paper, write lovely things inside, and give the card to all your favorite people, and together let’s blanket the world with all sorts of love as best we can!

   Also available here. And the original is available here.

   Enjoy!