Happy Valentines Day

Since it's Valentines today I thought it be appropriate or relevant to post up a few things I've wondered about as well as heard of or read in regards to love and relationships and attraction... First off, it being Valentines day, there will probably be a lot of heart shaped balloons, cards and candy boxes that will be presented to the many significant others, but how did the heart shape come about? Why does it look like two bass clef's meeting at their respective points. So I went online and started searching for the origin of the heart shape, and of course I come across a wikipedia article, along with a slate.com article about the origin of the symbol, and though it doesn't have or there is no definitive answer to the origin, some of the speculations are that the symbol came from the shape of the seedpod of a North African plant called the Silphium, which was widely traded as a form of birthcontrol by the city of Cyrene, and since this plant was so critical to the economy, coins were created in the shape of the seedpod, a heart. Some of the other theories are that Saint Margaret Mary Alocoque, had a vision of the heart surrounded by thorns which came to known as the sacred heart of Jesus Christ. Of course there are other theories that the heart shape is just a botched representation of a real heart when drawn by individuals in the past. Quite interesting... Now off the subject of symbols and onto time magazine, and their article about what is love, and how is it that we choose the person to love or have as a partner, well supposedly it has something to do with the MHC complex that's found in our immune systems, supposedly individuals with a different MHC complex then their own are attracted to the other and vice versa. And it seems to have to do with this idea of producing an offspring that has a more diverse immune system, thus allowing it to survive longer. Because when the 2 parents have the kids, with their differing immune systems, they will have a child with varying immunity towards a much diverse set of pathogens that they will have a higher chance of survival. But the interesting thing that the article pointed out was that women who are on the birth control pill tend to choose a mate that has a similar MHC complex, and this may cause a problem because once the woman is off the pill the relationship may not work out once her hormonal system is back to normal, and may end up divorcing the person she thought she was in love with. Anyway you can read more about it here. So quite interesting this idea of what we think love is, is it just a bunch of chemical reactions or is it something more metaphysical and spiritual, I guess in this modern age where there are long distance relationships perhaps love and attraction are on more of a intellectual level rather then physical. Who knows, what ever it is, we will all have our own answers.