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It may be sad that a radio ad for a jewelry store has inspired me to write a blog about hearts but it did so here goes.
The ad talks about how the heart, as a universal symbol for love in unique, special, and important to us as humans. I think this may be one those situations where for some reason something I hear hits a chord with me and really makes me think, but personally I had never thought about hearts like that before. [Ah yes, now I remember, it was an ad for Kaiser Permanente’s heart research]
Symbols are an important part of human communication and interaction and it seems like there are a few symbols that are so common you don’t notice that they’re symbols anymore. These would include symbols such as the heart, the peace sign, religious symbols such as the cross. These symbols imidiately convey a word, often times in ways that the word couldn’t convey.
A have a friend who is obsessed with drawing hearts on everything: her binder, her papers, my arm, her desk, etc… You get the point. While yes, granted, drawing hearts can be mind-numbingly fun, just like, say tetris, the conotations asociated with a drawn heart can be more appropriately applied than with the word.
It’s a shame that we only have one word for love in this language. Really it seems like most languages only have one word for it, in fact, in Hebrew love and like are the same word. I was, for a while, convinced that the Eskimo’s had 99 words for love until multiple Google searches brought me to the realization that in fact it was snow that they had 99 words for. Which of course is logical, seeing as they live in Alaska and snow is such as huge part of their lives. But that begs the question; as humans everywhere, love plays a huge role in our lives. And yet, we lack multiple words for it? I love my pet’s, I love my family, I love Coke, I love my friends, I would potentially love my girl friend or wife, but I love them all in different ways and for the same word to be be used to describe my love for a drink as my love for someone who I am going to spend the rest of my life with seems obsurd.
I say that, to say that it seems like the heart symbol can be used in a much more approriate manner. This is because its ubiquity lends it to proper interpertation. If your in love with your partner and she signs a note with a heart, then you see that as a sign of her love, if your friend ends a text with a heart, you take that as a sign of friendly affection. Then again, if you replace either of those heart symbols with the words I love you. You pretty much have the same reaction which brings me to the point in which I ask myself why I am writing this because I have realized I’m wrong and it has no point. Maybe it’s because my blog views are down since I stopped updating, maybe its because I’m trying to test out “livewriter” on my new computer or maybe it’s something else. Regardless I feel as though I have come to an end in this ramble about hearts and their meaning. – Arno
