Author Archives: Sharon Glassman

The Lilith Blog

February 8, 2016 by

The Tzedakah Valentine

Do you feel, in your heart of hearts, that Cupid’s annual holiday glorifies everything that’s wrongly romanticized and commercialized about love? 

Not to worry! 
 
There’s someone who can make you feel better this Valentine’s Day.
 
His name is…Cupid.
 
I’m talking about Cupid from Roman mythology. 
 
Cupid’s Mom is Venus: the God of Love. She’s high-maintenance, codependent, with an ego that’s easily threatened and a big thing for negative payback. And that’s not enough? Venus is Cupid’s boss in the world’s first matchmaking service. His job is to hit her targets with arrows that induce states of passion. 
 
It’s a high-pressure job in a tough family business. And Cupid’s not that great at it. If you were an HR person doing a Myers-Briggs, you might decide the job of Cupid is best suited to another candidate, one who’s more T(hinking)- than F(eeling)-based. Trouble is? Cupid’s impulsive, distractible by nature. Which makes his aim, to put it kindly? Less than reliable.
 
This brings us to Cupid’s Dad. Depending on which version of his story you read, Cupid’s father was either a) Vulcan, a god, specializing in metal-smithing with a personality a lot like Sylvester Stallone in the first Rocky movie or b) Mars, the god of War or c) no one at all.
 
So: back to you and me and Cupid’s Day as an alternative to Valentine’s Day. And the question: What’s to love here?

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