Random Post Val-day question

[Fazor]

I was just wondering, due to a non-valentine's day radio commercial for our local heart hospital, how did the heart become the symbol of love? Our heart has nothing to do with why/how we love. You could say "I love you because i can't live without you, just like you can live without a heart". But you can't live without a liver either. I've never seen a card that says "I (liver) you". There's that "cute little heart shape", but that's not even close to what a real heart looks like. Could probably draw a cute shape for just about any organ (except maybe intestines ). That "funny feeling you get" when you're around someone you love is more like a fluttery stomache than a feeling in your "heart area". *shrugs* so why this icon?

[Click Ticker]

You get a funny feeling in your stomache and your heart beats faster. Besides - there's nothing logical about love - so we have to identify something that involves how we feel rather than what we think.

Once the heart stops beating, you are dead. The rest of the organs can fail - but you aren't going to die until your heart stops, regardless of root cause.

[Gillianren]

We know now that the heart doesn't control love. Our knowledge of anatomy was not always so advanced.

[Fazor]

We know now that the heart doesn't control love. Our knowledge of anatomy was not always so advanced.

True, but now that we know, can't we change the symbol of love to something more appropriate? like a case of beer? Or, more to the point, 12 empty beer bottles? And change Feb 15th to "the awkward morning after day"?

[Neverfly]

its funny you said Liver.

In the Middle East it is more the custom to say "Liver" because to them THAT is the essential organ. So you seem to have hit the nail on the head on that one.


knowing better has nothing to do with Doing better. Nevermind the fact that the image used also looks absolutly nothing like a heart either.

[springa]

I think it goes back to certain ancient civilizations, particularly the Egyptians and later the Greeks, who believed that the heart was the center of human consciousness and emotion rather than the brain. If I remember right, some of the Greeks believed that the brain was a relatively unimportant organ, and the Egyptians usually removed the brain tissue during the mummification process and sometimes stuffed the skull with cloth instead!

Indeed, other cultures thought that the liver was the center of human consciousness rather than the heart, and in their vocabulary liver came to serve a similar function to heart in European languages.

[Doodler]

You get a funny feeling in your stomache and your heart beats faster. Besides - there's nothing logical about love - so we have to identify something that involves how we feel rather than what we think.

Once the heart stops beating, you are dead. The rest of the organs can fail - but you aren't going to die until your heart stops, regardless of root cause.

Quite the contrary, a young boy recently survived his heart stopping via a bypass machine awaiting a heart transplant. After a few days on the bypass, his heart restarted itself and is now beating again.

The brain's the key piece. If it goes, everything goes.

[Fazor]

Neverfly and springa; hehe I guess my thought-process isn't as stupid as I thought. Maybe I just have to move to the middle east.

And yeah, I know that the heart had been viewed as the 'center of being', but that still doesn't explain where the <3 shape came from. Oh well.

[Dr Nigel]

...

The brain's the key piece. If it goes, everything goes.

Well, I've met one or two people who might represent a challenge to that idea...

[Doodler]

Well, I've met one or two people who might represent a challenge to that idea...

There's a saying in there somewhere about 50,000 neurons at 50,000 keyboards, but I'm a little rusty on my human anatomy to put it into proper terms.

[Gillianren]

True, but now that we know, can't we change the symbol of love to something more appropriate? like a case of beer? Or, more to the point, 12 empty beer bottles? And change Feb 15th to "the awkward morning after day"?

Hey, I'm very much in love, and I've never been drunk in my life!

It is remarkably different to change symbology. It often takes hundreds of years--or else some pretty striking reason. The swastika is the only symbol I can think of that ever underwent a complete change of meaning, and I don't see an evil megalomaniac using the heart as his symbol any time soon.

As to why we use the shape we do, there are a lot of guesses. It has, however, been pointed out that a frog's heart pretty closely resembles the symbol we use, and that during the Middle Ages, we didn't have a lot of knowledge of human anatomy, given that autopsies were forbidden. (Note that this last only applies to Western cultures, but since they're the ones who gave us the symbol, that's what matters.)

[Fazor]

It is remarkably different to change symbology. It often takes hundreds of years--or else some pretty striking reason. The swastika is the only symbol I can think of that ever underwent a complete change of meaning, and I don't see an evil megalomaniac using the heart as his symbol any time soon.

I'm suprised you didn't mention the pentagram as well, considering (what I've guessed is) your background. At least, from what I understand, most people view it as a very different meaning than what the origonal (pegan?) meaning was. Altho I could very well be wrong; when dealing with such subjects I just have the tiny bits of knowlege I picked up from my ex.

Oh, I am also very much in love...but I happen to be drunk alot too.

[Gillianren]

I'm suprised you didn't mention the pentagram as well, considering (what I've guessed is) your background. At least, from what I understand, most people view it as a very different meaning than what the origonal (pegan?) meaning was. Altho I could very well be wrong; when dealing with such subjects I just have the tiny bits of knowlege I picked up from my ex.

Oh, the pentagram has always meant protection. The question is, protecting who from what?

[Maksutov]

True, but now that we know, can't we change the symbol of love to something more appropriate? like a case of beer? Or, more to the point, 12 empty beer bottles? And change Feb 15th to "the awkward morning after day"?

Somewhat ahead of you on that one. Way back when, every February 14th was Ballantine's Day. I'd pop open some XXX Ale and some India Pale and if a weekday, take the next day off.