by Kevin Burton
You’ve heard of rose-colored glasses? You’ve heard of beer goggles? You’ve heard of “I only have eyes for you, sh-bop, sh-bop?
Well it’s Valentine’s week and here on Page 7, for the occasion, we’re going to do a little bird watching. Stay with me now, for as the kids say, “it’s complicated.”
Well, love rhymes with dove. For that and other reasons romantic guys the world over have thought of and described their female love interests as doves.
For example, take the book Song of Solomon. That’s the book that comes right after my favorite Old Testament Book, Ecclesiastes.
Song of Solomon is not like the other 65 books of the Bible. It’s a love story that doesn’t hold back. It tells about King Solomon who pursues then marries a woman known only as The Shulamite. He calls her “my dove” and also refers to her eyes as dovelike.
“Behold, you are fair, my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove’s eyes,” Solomon wrote (Song of Solomon 1:15 NKJV).
Fast forward a few chapters.
“Behold, you are fair, my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove’s eyes behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats, Going down from Mount Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep which have come up from the washing, Every one of which bears twins, And none is barren among them. Your lips are like a strand of scarlet, And your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil Are like a piece of pomegranate. Your neck is like the tower of David, Built for an armory, On which hang a thousand bucklers, All shields of mighty men. (Song of Solomon 4: 1-4 NKJV).
I’ll stop right there before he gets to her boobs. You can read that on your own time.
Look man, Solomon had it bad! If you’re standing in the greeting card aisle trying to find that perfect message, you ain’t gonna find anything like this!
Or maybe you’re writing your own card, or that message that goes with the (overpriced but yes, well worth it, read me here fellas) flowers you ordered, and you kind of like that whole dove thing.
OK so now, returning to the beer goggles and rose-colored glasses narrative; your woman’s beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder, you. How do you see her?
And did you know, scientifically, that there is very little difference between a dove and a pigeon?
Really! You’d have to get way up into their business to tell the difference.
But don’t take it from me. Get the scoop from my first-ever venture onto the website pigeonpedia.com.
“Doves and pigeons are technically the same thing but language caused a distinction, creating two definitions,” wrote Denise Bereford on pigeonpedia.com.
(Look, I’m not passing up any chances to write pigeonpedia!)
“All pigeons and doves belong to the same family and are classified by their similar appearance of a stout body with small, rounded heads, tapered wings, short legs and cooing calls, though doves are typically smaller in stature,” Bereford wrote. “The one major difference between the species is thatthey have a different number of chromosomes.”
Guys, are there not times when sweet-ums gets a little snippy or standoffish, that she begins to look a little more like a pigeon than a dove?
You think Solomon’s comparing the woman’s teeth to a flock of shorn sheep is odd? I’d try that one before dropping any kind of pigeon reference.
(Oooo, shouldn’t have said dropping…too late now…)
“The general view is that doves are beautiful, soft-looking birds, a symbol of love and peace, while pigeons somewhat reviled, a feral bird often thought of as vermin found in mainly gray, brown and blue colors,” wrote Bereford, one of the staff writers at pigeonpedia.com.
Doves are essentially white pigeons guys, just sayin’.
“When it comes to etymology, the definition of what a dove is has changed over the years. ,” Bereford wrote.
“The word “dove” was originally used to describe all pigeons but in English it is (or at least should be) primarily used to refer to turtle doves.”
“However, the distinction is made harder through language as expressions are not consistent and are often used interchangeably.”
“The Germanic word is dove, which refers to the bird’s diving flight, while the French use pigeon, which is derived from the Latin word pipio, which means ‘peeping’ chick.”
“Individuals their own linguistic views without scientific or taxonomic knowledge, so what one person may call a dove, another may call a pigeon,” wrote Bereford in a highly entertaining article on pigeonpedia.com.
Well guys, you have a whole week before Valentine’s Day to compose those love poems. Be careful not to step in anything.
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