From The Bottom Of My Eyeballs
Monday, June 30, 2008
From The Bottom Of My Eyeballs
Have you ever heard of somebody saying something like "I love you with all my heart", or "I thank you from the bottom of my heart"? You kind of hear it all the time, on soap operas, in cheesy love songs, in cheap romance novels, from your boyfriend for the umpteenth time. It gets a little sickening after some time doesn't it, as if saying those words are like putting a full stop to the end of a sentence. It just seems natural these days to say those words, or else you might be cheating, lying, or all of the above. But if you look into it, if you really look into it, what "heart", why "heart"? Everybody loves something or somebody else with all their heart, but who came up with the idea of using a heart to love a person when it is really your brain doing all the work anyway. The brain is completely under-rated here, and all the credit goes to the heart for no apparent reasons when all that goes there are really just deoxygenated blood. The heart is really a complex composition of cardiac muscles at the size of a fist, pumping blood to the rest of the body - and that's it. Something as intangible as love does not originate from there, and you certainly won't find a lot of thanks at the bottom of anybody's heart.
Have you ever heard of somebody saying something like "I love you with all my heart", or "I thank you from the bottom of my heart"? You kind of hear it all the time, on soap operas, in cheesy love songs, in cheap romance novels, from your boyfriend for the umpteenth time. It gets a little sickening after some time doesn't it, as if saying those words are like putting a full stop to the end of a sentence. It just seems natural these days to say those words, or else you might be cheating, lying, or all of the above. But if you look into it, if you really look into it, what "heart", why "heart"? Everybody loves something or somebody else with all their heart, but who came up with the idea of using a heart to love a person when it is really your brain doing all the work anyway. The brain is completely under-rated here, and all the credit goes to the heart for no apparent reasons when all that goes there are really just deoxygenated blood. The heart is really a complex composition of cardiac muscles at the size of a fist, pumping blood to the rest of the body - and that's it. Something as intangible as love does not originate from there, and you certainly won't find a lot of thanks at the bottom of anybody's heart.
So yes, you tend to see a bunch of floating hearts during occasions like Valentine's Day, you get to see them plastered on the walls of shopping malls, printed on gift cards, drawn on love letters, and everywhere you see an animated heart on a day like that. There must have been somebody out there who decided that it'd be neat to represent the emotion of love with a body part, and somehow he chose the heart to represent it. I have never figured out why that person decided to choose a human heart in the first place, perhaps the word "heart" has a nice little ring to it. You are not going to hear somebody say "I love with you all my lungs" or "I thank you from the bottom of my liver". Lungs and livers are just not very romantic to begin with, although the word "heart" is no less scientific and technical in nature than all the other organs in our bodies. Somehow, the heart just works for all the lovers out there, and none of them has ever questioned why they say such things that really don't make any sense at all.
I have a friend who said that "love" is represented by the human heart because that is the part of our body that keeps us alive. Well, that just doesn't make any sense because every part of our body keeps us alive one way or another, perhaps just not as noticeable as the heart. They are, however, equally important as all the other organs, so what makes the heart more qualified to be representing love in the first place? We probably can't do without our kidneys, or our small intestines, or even our anus. Everything is there because they are there for a reason, they are not going to be there for decorations or because there's an empty space for your body to fill. That is why babies born without anuses are being drilled one literally, because it is an important part of the body. So what if the heart pumps blood around the body twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week, nothing works after a prolonged period of feces gathering inside your rectum, and everything subsequently shuts down afterwards. Even our anuses are important, so can I love you with all my anus too?
It's probably impolite, to love somebody with your anus. It's usually where you poop from, and it certainly does not smell very nice. To love somebody with that body part, although it is certainly vital to our survival, is just not very glamorous and poetic, at least not as poetic as a heart. So let's pick a cleaner body part, how about the eyes? The eyes are amazing things, in fact they are probably the most beautiful body part that we have, unless you want to take women's breasts into consideration. But not all breasts are beautiful, so I think eyeballs completely take the cake here (to where, you ask?). You don't hear people complaining about dirty eyes, and our eyes have the natural ability to clean themselves up when something gets in it. You start to tear uncontrollably, or blink as if you are trying to flirt. All these bodily functions make sure that your vision remains at 20/20 all the time without irritations, whatsoever. I'm pretty sure we have all looked into an eyeball before, like one of those high definition pictures of somebody else's eyeballs. Aren't those the most beautiful things in the world? It looks somewhat like a nebula somehow, something at the end of the galaxy. It's pretty amazing.
So can we love each other with all our eyeballs? We don't have food passing through our eyeballs like the stomach, or the small intestines, or the big intestines for that matter. Just imagine all the crap you get when you travel through your body, and you find yourself face to face with your breakfast, and maybe even the dinner from last night half digested in your stomach. It's a pretty repulsive sight, and I don't suppose love should be associated with something like that. It's just not graceful enough, and certainly strange to associate love with intestines. I mean, it'd be strange to draw a series of intestines on Valentine's Day cards for sure, and an anus would be pretty hard to draw since, under normal circumstances, no one has ever seen their own anuses. Heart just seems to be the natural choice, and it just seems like I am shooting myself in the toes now. The heart is somewhat symmetrical on both sides, with nice little curves at the top and a little tapered end at the bottom - how cute, like a rabbit or, a baby hedgehog. The heart just seems natural, so perhaps we should love each other with all our hearts after all, right?
No, not really. The brain is under-rated, like I said. It isn't even mentioned in a sensible and logical sentence like "You have been on my mind all the time". What is a mind anyway, what in the world is it? Some people say that it is something like your soul, something that exists with you but you cannot put a finger on it. I think the mind is a process, and the process is a part of the function of a little tofu-like organ called - our brain. The brain is really what makes everything work, and whether or not you love or hate a person is completely dependent on what your brain wants you to feel. If you like to smear peanut butter all over yourself and then dance naked in your kitchen when nobody is at home, that is really your brain doing the job and not your heart. The heart doesn't even think for itself, it is governed by the brain. In other words, the brain owns the heart, it's the boss of the body. You can't possibly love a person with your brain removed from your skull, because your brain registers the emotion and then tells you that you love that person. So you want to be with her, you want to touch her, and you want to feel her presence. The brain should be representing love, not hearts.
But of course, the word "brain" doesn't actually sound very nice either. It's too scientific, and it is usually used when you are either praising someone for his intelligence or degrading someone for his utter stupidity. Either way, you don't associate brains with love because, well, that guy that came up with the heart thing said so. So somebody came up with the beautiful euphemism for our brains, and that is "our minds". Then somebody else came up with the argument of the separation of the brain and the mind, and whether or not they are the same or completely different things. I do suppose in every basic psychology classes around the world, students are still arguing over this issue ever since it was first brought up. Either the brain or the mind, it certainly isn't going to be the heart to win out at the end of the day. The heart is, like I said, a pumping organ full of blood, and it is as important as all the other organs. Why should the other organs be discredited in the first place?
So the next time you decide to love somebody with all your heart, think about all the other organs in your body before you say it. Think about your bladder, or your ears, or even your spine if you want to. Everything makes as much, or as little, sense as the heart. Whoever that came up with the heart thing must have thought it funny to do so. He must have thought it to be interesting to conduct some kind of social experiment to see if anybody catches on to something as ridiculous as what he said. We all fell for his trick though, now everybody is loving with all their hearts and thanking people with the bottom of their hearts too. What is a heart anyway, nobody is ever going to give me an answer. And if you can, if you do have your own reasons as to why we use the heart to represent the love that we all share instead of any other organs, than I shall sincerely thank you - from the bottom of my eyeballs.
P.S. Did you know that 60000 eyeballs are thrashed every single year? That is how under-rated it is. Appreciate your eyeballs people, stop playing your PSPs in the dark.
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on Monday, June 30, 2008 at 7:32 PM.
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