The Sidewalk Heart

It's the Maple Seed

Maple Seed in a Sidewalk Heart © 2012 Bo Mackison

What a happy and holy fashion it is that those who love one another should rest on the same pillow.  ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

This is a photograph of a metaphor for marriage.

See the pretty heart? It was carved out of a part of the pavement on a city sidewalk in Chicago. That seems appropriate. Sherpa and I met on a city street, in Chicago, almost 39 years ago. A stylized heart, such as this one, is a symbol of love, though I always wondered how this shape came to be.

See how the heart is roughly carved? A few hacks and rough spots. Some gouges and uneven outlines. Sounds like most marriages I know. Yes, even the ones that last and last and last. There are gouges and rough spots, but there are a lot more smoothed areas.

See how some dirt has collected in the creases, in a few of the gouges? How there is a smattering of grit and grime around the heart? Well, even in a good marriage, there is great deal of day-to-day clean-up that is required. Most of the grit gets swept away, a bit remains. That’s OK. Marriage is a committed relationship between two imperfect people. No marriage is perfect. But this particular marriage I am writing about has had some perfect moments, some great, and a lot of good enough.

See the maple seed? It’s a bit bedraggled, a bit dirtied by street traffic, but it’s all in one piece. If you planted the twirly seed, there’s a good chance it would grow into a little tree. And the seed has two parts connected, but still each wing has its own seed. In a lasting marriage, there are together times and separate times. Good recipe for keeping a marriage alive.

So maybe I am stretching the maple seed metaphor a bit. But that’s OK, too. When I saw the heart and the seed on the sidewalk a couple of weeks ago, I immediately took a photograph with the intention of writing about it and posting it today, June 12th, 2012, in honor of the 36th anniversary of the wedding of Sherpa and Bo.

Happy Anniversary, Sherpa.

(It ain’t just anyone who gets a bedraggled maple seed in a sidewalk heart photograph for their anniversary!)

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is taking tonight off – no camera! – and celebrating. Dinner for two in NYC!

Me and My Sherpa

Today is one of those milestone days, the special ones people celebrate because so many years ago on this certain date, a special event happened.

Today is a special day for my Sherpa and me.

My Sherpa is the guy who hangs around with me and lugs my camera gear when we go on our weekend photo shoots. I’m the one that gets to ooh and aah and click the shutter, and my Sherpa is the one that cheers me on. He’s also the one that usually pulls out the checkbook at the camera supply store and signs the receipt. He’s the one that says, “Go for it!” when I get crazy ideas.

Sherpa and Me

Sherpa and Me © 2008 Bo Mackison

Sometimes we get tired and feel rather down on the ground and spend days searching for the best way to climb all those stairs that make our knees ache. But together we climb to the top, and it’s doable because we don’t have to go it alone. We struggle upwards together.

Me and My Sherpa

Shadow Play, Me and My Sherpa © 2008 Bo Mackison

Other times we’ve made it to the top and we stand together and cheer. Cheer for the really good parts of life and cheer because we are lucky to share our lives this time around. Cheer because we’ve fought the hard parts and survived – and survived to smile again.

32 years ago today, it was 90 degrees in central Illinois and together we stood in a packed church and while I sobbed and he cracked jokes, we both managed to say “I do” at the right time. We both made a promise to do our best, to live our lives together, to be there for each other – good times, bad times, sickness, health. So far we’ve done just that.

And so today we celebrate . . . because life is good. Together.