A Late Valentine’s Day History Treat

It was recently bought to my personal attention by a very eager contributor to The Scorpion Army that I skipped anything about Valentine’s Day yet another year. It’s true, I do skip it, it’s a stupid “holiday” in my opinion. I truly dislike absolutely everything about it, especially the commercialization of how one is to show love or affection. It just blows my mind the amount of money dole out, and for what? I could mention Christmas and Easter as well, but we’ll get back to those another day altogether. Since I’m way behind on the whole email reading thing I’m just now getting to this one, I hope she understands. But, this is an interesting look at the iconic Valentine’s Day heart’s origin, or at least one opinion, and if nothing else it sparked my interest a little. I’ve said for a long time that the worship of the ass of females should be a religion. Anyway, I don’t know where she got the information below or how accurate it is, but it made me smile, so I chose to share.

The familiar double-lobed heart symbol seen on modern day Valentine’s Day cards and candy was inspired by the shape of human female buttocks as seen from the rear. The twin lobes of the stylized version correspond roughly to the paired auricles and ventricles of the anatomical heart, but is never bright red in color and its shape does not have the invagination at the top nor the sharp point at the base. The ancient Greeks and Romans originated the link between human female anatomy and the heart shape. The Greeks associated beauty with the curves of the human female behind. The Greek goddess of beauty, Aphrodite, was beautiful all over, but was unique in that her buttocks were especially beautiful. Her shapely rounded hemispheres were so appreciated by the Greeks that they built a special temple Aphrodite Kallipygos, which literally meant, ‘Goddess with the Beautiful Buttocks.’ This was probably the only religious building in the world that was dedicated to buttock worship.

What the traditional “heart shape” actually depicts is a matter of some controversy. It only vaguely resembles the human heart. The seed of the silphium plant, used in ancient times as an herbal contraceptive, has been suggested as the source of the heart symbol. The heart symbol could also be considered to depict features of the human female body, such as the female’s buttocks, pubic mound, or spread vulva. The tantric symbol of the “Yoni” is another example of a heart-shaped abstraction of a woman’s vulva.

Out With The Old & In With The New

Not too terribly long ago I made the command decision that I wanted a new wedding band. Oh wait, don’t get me wrong, I have been happy with my wedding band for 14 years now. But, it was starting to show its age and didn’t have the same impact in looks as it had in years gone by. Part of the reason is purely my fault because I never took it off. If my ring was off of my finger it was because I was ordered to remove it. Other than that it remains on my finger 24/7. I thought when I had our matching set made that I used a good mix of materials, 18k yellow gold and platinum, and could get looks and durability as well. With my continuous wearing of my band is where the problem evolved because I wore it out. It wasn’t fitting right anymore on the inside and had developed an “edge” where the material had been worn away with time. My wife’s band on the other hand looked as shiny and new as the day we were married. That goes for her platinum engagement ring as well, one would never know it was 15 years old and worn daily. Since all three rings were custom made for me they had more than just the traditional sentimental feelings attached because I designed them all and picked out the 3 karats of diamonds which were mounted in her engagement ring. It goes beyond the money that was invested, it involves more with what do we do with the old rings once I have new ones made. Keep them? Pass them down? Sell them? Recycle them? I never thought I would choose the sell option, not in a million years. But, doing a little research made the decision for me since gold prices were good, platinum prices were 20 times higher now than what I paid, and the diamonds would also fetch a pretty penny. But, we will get back to all that in a bit.

So, it was me, not my wife, that was looking for new wedding bands. In my defense, I have had conversations with my wife about hers and she had been telling me that when the day comes to replace hers that she only wants one ring instead of the two. Well, I couldn’t honestly find myself a ring and not also one for her, so my exploration into custom rings and what I personally wanted has begun. I knew a few basic things about what I wanted and what I didn’t want in my new ring. Number one is I didn’t want there to be any gold, none. I also didn’t want it to be fancy since I still work for a living, but I did want it to be noticeable. After I was able to remember the company that made our custom rings the first time I was able to contact them so arrange a consultation. I was looking for a platinum centered ring with black stainless steel on both sides. When at my meeting I was told that I should add some black diamonds to give it some class. Diamonds? I have never wore diamonds ever in my life. But, I was shown five matching 1/5 karat black diamonds and I think I was hooked. We took ring finger measurements, 14 1/2, and she gave me the price and the estimated time of delivery, about 3 weeks. I’m not going to tell y’all how much I paid because I feel a little guilty spending what I did for a ring for myself.

For my wife’s ring I was pretty picky. I wanted our to “match” but not be identical if that makes any sense. I picked platinum as the metal but wanted a mix of white and black diamonds. I really didn’t want it to be completely solid at the width I wanted so I had them doing a webbing type of lattice. On hers we placed 3 karats of black diamonds and 2 karats of white diamonds on 1/3 of the surface of the ring, which, as I found out later, was an amazing feat to get to happen on a size 4 1/2 ring. I needed for her ring to stand out and demand to be noticed. In my opinion my desires were rewarded with an amazing looking ring. I couldn’t wait for the delivery.

Almost a month had passed and I received my package in the mail. I was as excited as a small child waking up Christmas morning. After reading the short letter and reviewing the final invoice I really hoped I got what I wanted because there aren’t any returns. With this venture I had to have got it right the first time or I was really screwed. Slowly I began to open the box which contained the rings. My first impression was they nailed it. Then I could only wonder when would be a good time to give my wife her new ring. Then the idea hit me. At first I thought I had the perfect moment to reveal her ring to her. Her 40th birthday was just a few weeks away and I believed this would be a nice addition to what I had already got for her. I know she isn’t even expecting a new wedding ring and its probably the furtherest thing from her mind when she wonders what I might have come up with. So, this was my plan. Fortunately for me I was able to work in the surprise of her ring with about 35 of closest friends and family while we were all out to eat. The surprise on her face was priceless since hadn’t even noticed that I was already wearing my new band. Not to pat myself on the back but at that point I pretty much figured I had hit the home run of all home runs known to mankind.

I had already arranged to have all three of our old rings appraised by a local precious metals buyer so now I needed to just go. After a very short conversation with my wife she mentioned we should sell the rings since we no longer have a need for them. All I could think to myself was that is a fantastic idea and I told her I would take care of it. The following day I went down to the buyer and she wasn’t actually interested in the rings themselves since they were custom and had been engraved. The only option I was given was to sell it all for “scrap” to be melted down. A little worried, I told her to proceed with the weighing of the metal and the diamonds. Holy shit! Did I mention the price of gold, platinum, and diamonds had seriously increased from the time when I bought these rings? No? Well, let’s just say my “scrap” was worth over 30 times what I originally paid to have 3 custom rings made. After verifying that I was the owner of the rings by providing my original invoice she asked if I wanted to go ahead and make the exchange. Of course you know I did the deal. The cool thing is this place pays in cash. Which was great because I needed to replenish my stash. Are you wondering if I told my wife about the tidy profit? To date it has never come up in conversation so no she does not know. But then again, she never knew what was spent the first time around.

The moral to this whole story is, well actually, there is no moral. However, what I learned was that when the time comes for change or making a decision for something one wants that it is best to just act on it. I think if I would have hesitated that we would have nothing new to show for it today. My wife and I have an interesting relationship because we actually trust in one another’s decisions.