While there is no scientific proof that love originates in the heart, there is significant evidence provided by poets, composers, and artists to the contrary. When it comes to my diet I tend to follow my doctor’s orders, but when it comes to meaningful matters of the heart, I decidedly side with the artists.
Love, however, has become a commodity that has been cheapened by people who throw the word around like butchers sling sides of beef in the meat-packing district.
My source for the meaning of love can be found in the words of the Little Prince who said: “It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Because I played the part of the Tin Man in a college production of the Wizard of Oz I freely admit that I am prejudiced when I say that this character is the perfect example of what it means when we say love is the sole resident of the heart.
At the risk of offending people who get their Oz meaning from the movie, the great and powerful producers of the classic movie really screwed up when it came to bringing the Tin Man to life on the big screen.
The Tin Man was not created by a tin smith who forgot to put in a heart. In truth, and the truth comes from the Book of Baum, i.e. The Wizard of Oz who tells a totally different story as to why the Tin Man didn’t have a heart. And what’s interesting to note is that of the three travelers to Oz, the Tin Man was the only one who was actually “human.”
The Tin Man started out as a woodsman who happened to be in love with a beautiful Munchkin girl (not to be confused with a product made by Dunkin’ Donut). Unfortunately the Munchkin girl’s mother did not approve of the simple woodsman so she sought the help of the Wicked Witch of the East who ruled over Munchkin land.
The Wicked Witch put a curse on the woodsman’s ax and in a series of gruesome acts befitting traditional fairy tales, the ax slipped, first removing a leg to be replaced by a leg of tin, followed by another leg which was mended by some tin-kering, and so on until a final blow of the ax split the woodsman’s torso. This meant the tinsmith had to fashion a new tin torso. In doing so, the tinsmith forgot to put in a heart.
Although he was perfectly new, the fact that in his re-creation he was heart-less, rendered the Tin Man incapable of showing or receiving love.
So, what does this mean? Take a look at the people around you. While they might not be made of tin, they might as well be because most of them are not capable of loving or being loved. Somehow during the course of life the ax slips and does its damage. We are repaired, but over time when we are made a-new we are made without a heart.
Today people go around as if they did have a heart, but they don’t. They are an empty can, not only heartless but soul-less, too.
In Oz the Tin Man was willing to go on chopping down trees despite the fact that every swing he took did him bodily harm.
In life every time we attempt to love we run the risk of being hurt. But it is in the act of loving that we become fully human.
Just like the rabbit in the Velveteen Rabbit, we only become real when we have sacrificed for others. We have to be more like the tree in the Giving Tree.
In the end the Tin Man proved that while we use the heart as the symbolic place where love resides, love lives fully in those who daily are willing to love.
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