Have a Heart

The anatomy of the human heart bears no resemblance to the red and pink hearts so prevalent on Valentine’s Day. Curious? Galen, known as the father of medicine in the second century, described the heart as a “three-chambered organ shaped like a pinecone,” so perhaps this is how the shape we identify with the heart came to be. Others believe that the rendering was modeled after an ivy leaf that symbolizes fidelity. Like many questions we ponder, there are no straightforward answers, but likely some truth in many answers.

The Romans and Greeks viewed the human heart as the home of love. Our hearts break, race, heal and bleed because we love. In a single moment, the most critical organ in our bodies can stop, and life cruelly and instantaneously disappears. Yet even when a heart ceases to beat, the love it created always endures.