My little daughter climbs into bed with me early one morning while I am writing and cuddles into me. As she cleverly steals my body heat she hears my heart beating as her head lies gently upon my left side.
She has a puzzle on her brow and asks, “ Daddy you are a heart doctor right?” To which a prompt “ yes” was my reply.
So “ can you please tell me why does the heart look like this” ( as she cups both hands into the symbolic heart) “ but your heart model on your desk looks very different?”
Of course at this point I am racking all my brain cells to find the answer beneath the long hidden cob webs of intellectual curiosity.
“ So” I began with a deep long breath and an air of authority.
The heart shape is a symbol for an ancient plant called silphium, found in antiquity Greek city of Cyrene. It was a medicine and a spice and also used for birth control. It was first depicted in the 1250s in French Romance called the Roman de la poire. ( romance of the pear)
Medieval art had the shape upright and inverted depending on their paintings and to convey various emotions.
I did not explain to her that the shapes were to also represent the female breasts, buttocks and the groin anatomy, since the symbol was made by men and as we know usually have a one tracked mind. Inverted hearts signified in some coat of arms the bravado of the house as the shape appears like testicles.
“ so daddy why is the heart to the left and not under the center?” She asked as she moved on seamlessly to the next volley of questions..
“ Well the heart is in the center but sort of leans to the left because the left ventricle has to do a lot of work to transform blood with oxygen and the heart is a muscle and so it becomes big and strong “
she looked at me taking it all in. A few moments later “ daddy I want my own biology book, I have to study all about the body”
“ we have plenty and I will teach you whatever you need to know”
A quick dive into the blanket and further nuzzling and that is how my morning commenced.
I have much to be aware with this one, she is going to keep me on my toes for sure.
………….
I love you
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