The Eternal Paper Anniversary

The Eternal Paper Anniversary

A 5-year-old's cardboard box Valentine's day has “be mine” written all over it. This, often our first social lesson in love is such unfair pedagogy, veiled in the simple aesthetics of arts and crafts. It was said that “everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten, ” where we learned that love flowed from that red and pink heart shape.

Can you recall the shock upon seeing for the first time a picture of a real heart? We learned what it really takes to keep blood and live surging through our veins and to keep us alive. But why did we not find a new course for our scissors, still cutting out the same heart shape, pasting in over our chest with a happy smile of undying immortality?

And do you recall the shock when, after all those years, when our life's love faded as surely as the red construction paper in a sun that could not compete with the coursing throbs of life's true passion? And even though we knew what the heart really looks like, we go to cut out our heart shape, like a young lover who still has not see what the heart looks like?

He said, “She is not the construction paper cutout that I married.” She said, “But I cut the edges so carefully. Why does he not like it?” I said, “I would never make that mistake. I will be sure to buy different paper and use a better pair of scissors.”