Cupid Strikes

So fatal, so elusive and so impossible- why then did the human race subject ourselves to this form of modern guillotine? Love is often times a senseless thing. That could probably be the reason why we always love with the heart, and never with the mind. For every child of 10 would be able to tell you that all the heart does is to pump blood. The real culprit, lies more hidden, towards the north, in that secret sanctuary, enjoying a penthouse view. I suppose the brain is reserved more for rational thought, and therefore, as people decided to become a 'Fool for Love' end up with 'Loving you with all My Heart.' But why the heart? We all could have used the bullet on the other god-knows how many organs in our body.

1. The heart was probably one of the first organs that was noticed by mankind...along with the stomach and bladder and...intestine. But lets face it, they are waay too unappealing. One stores food, n digests it with acid and enzymes...and that's not the way to treat a lover, i think. The bladder stores waste and excretes it from our body. That definitely sends the wrong signals. And the intestine, absorbs nutrients and excretes unabsorbable solid waste and water. Which is basically saying that you absorb all the good there is in your partner and then when the bank account is high and dry or the mortgage paid off and then it's time to leave the poor fella as dried as an old, preserved prune.

2. The heart has four chambers. An average car seats 4 comfortably. And let's face it, who doesn't love cars? Too few, and it's like a race car, too fast and too unstable..someone might get thown out...accidentally, of course. Too many, and it's like a SUV. Which spells family. Which scares away half the population of men.

3. Valves. To stop things from going in the wrong direction.

4. Cardiac cells. Which do not regenerate. Which means once a relationship has gone sour, someone cheats, the door is closed, there can be no more U-turns. It's strictly a one-way street.

5. The heart generates it's own impulses. A relationship should be a positive educational and rewarding experience for both parties.

Well, I wonder if the above would get me a job in some women's magazine..Cleo or Her World or some other mag that women read while getting a perm. But in reality, I have often thought love is simply too powerful, too strong a word to be used by mere mortals...even on ourselves. People in love proclaim that they hear angels sing, or sparks fly, or a flame which is so grand that it engulfs the whole world with it...to me, it just sounds as if they've had too much of Nickelodeon.

However, while I was driving around a corner the other day, I had a glimpse- a glimpse of something people around the world would envy. It wasn't a Greek God or an apparition of Legolas, though I don't think I would have minded if it was. It was this old couple, probably in their 70's, huddled under the umbrella for it was drizzling lightly, and the man had his arm over his wife's shoulder while they slowly navigated their way through the puddles. It was the same couple who I see day after day, taking their brief evening walks, hand in hand. And for a moment, just a brief moment, I guess I believed. Those teddy bears and buy5-free-1 rose promotions had a reason to be in business. For ultimately, everyone walks through life like a gambler. We lose and keep on losing...but I guess at the back of our minds (and hearts) , we all hold on to the small chance, so minute, yet so tempting. The chance that maybe, just maybe when we're plagued with athritis and osteoporosis and greying hair and sagging skin and adult diapers, we'll have someone's hand to hold.