I have awakened to the myths around me, particularly those surrounding love and friendship and promises of forever. The myth that has been so utterly dismantled is that involving the human heart: Cupid's target, love's sanctuary.
Which dictates that the heart contains all that is best in a person-love, empathy, charity, self-sacrifice. It is a vessel filled with flower petals and perfume. However, in the same way I know the earth was not flat, the sun rises in the east, and 192 angels can dance on the head of a pin, I know this romantic myth is untrue.
The heart is a vessel, certainly, thick-walled and ornate-to hide the horrors writhing within. The truth is, the heart contains all that is worst in a person: all that is vile, malicious, and corrupt.
I once saw a variation of The Iron Maiden in a Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum. This Iron Maiden didn't contain spikes, but was no less lethal. According to the plaque next to the exhibit, once a lawbreaker was secured inside a fire was stoked beneath the case. As the iron heated the person thrashed and wailed within. The thick walls of the case muted the lawbreaker's tortured cries, producing a soft ringing on the outside that was said to be beautiful, melodious-like singing.
This is the human heart: a vessel containing all the screaming and thrashing of our worst tendencies. Its thick walls mute the turmoil into music. For as sturdy as these walls are, the heart can be broken, spilling out all of that corruption and filth within the afflicted person. Herein lies the ethereal ecstasy of falling in love: being rid of our hearts and receiving that of another, which is lovely and ornate, ringing softly with all that writhes and screeches within.