Cheers!

The largest muscle in the body is Gluteus Maximus... Yes folks, that's the butt... the derriere, tush, behind, bottom, rear or, my favorite, aft extremity. But the most important muscle in the body is the heart.

From the moment it begins beating until the moment it stops, the human heart works tirelessly, beating an average of 72 times per minute... that's more than two and a half billion times in an average lifetime, without ever pausing to rest. It's no wonder that we use the "heart" in so many daily phrases. Verbiage used to describe a feeling, an experience, a desire, a promise, an emotion, a description or a place.

A heart of gold,
A heart of stone,
A heart throb (like Shawn Cassidy in the early eighties... yum),
A heart to heart talk,
A heart-warming experience,
After your own heart,
Change of heart,
Cold hands warm heart,
Cross my heart and hope to die,
Cry your heart out (been there, done that!),
Have a heart,
Wearing your heart on your sleeve,
Heart and soul (great song),
Heart wrenching,
Heart warming,
Heartbreak Hotel (Elvis IS the King),
Home is where the heart is,
In my heart of hearts,
Know by heart,
Lose your heart,
Melt the heart,
Near and dear to my heart,
Open your heart,
Serious as a heart-attack,
Set your heart on something,
Sob your heart out,
Steal someone's heart,
The heart has its reasons,
The way to a man's heart is through his stomach,
Warms the cockles of my heart,
What becomes of the broken-hearted,
With a hearty hiho Silver,
Young at heart.

While the phrases listed above are appropriate, the most commonly used phrase that includes this human body part is "broken hearted." I have often wondered where this term came from. When, in history, did we begin equating love and feelings with this, the most important body part? In researching this "phenomenon," I did not find definitiveve answer but... I have found that the heart, as a euphemism has been used by Chinese philosophers as early as 370 - 300 BC.

"A Great man is he who does not lose his childlike heart." - Mencius (Mengzi Meng-tse).

Similarly, the heart as a descriptor, has been used in the Bible.

"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, while the heart of the fool is in the house of entertainment." - Bible. Sacred Scriptures of Christians and Judaism

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" - Bible. Sacred Scriptures of Christians and Judaism

And, as I suspected, the heart being equated to love has been used by Poets.

"Whether you call my heart affectionate, or you call it womanish: I confess, that to my misfortune, it is soft." - Ovid BC 43-18 AD Roman Poet

After learning this, I started to wonder where and when the modern shape of the heart begin? I found this:

"There are a few ancient symbols that recur through the ages. One of these symbols - the heart - means many things to many people. Just how did the stylized heart shape become the icon for love and the human soul? Let's work our way back in history:

The heart symbol as we know it today, was popularized in the Victorian era over a hundred years ago. They loved the romantic heart shape and embellished it in many ways; but they didn't invent it. Where did it come from?

Getting closer to the source, the Egyptian ab, or "heart soul", apparently bears a remarkable resemblance to the stained glass Christian iconographs. The story of the ab was that one of the Egyptian's seven souls came directly from the mother's heart, in the form of holy lunar blood and would descend to the womb and take the shape of her child. The Catholic church claims that the symbol of the heart (Sacred Heart) began when Saint Margaret Marie Alacoque had a vision in the late 17th century. She saw a heart shape surrounded by a crown of thorns.
There is evidence that it is still older. Centuries earlier than Saint Alacoque, the heart symbol was incorporated in a number of stained glass windows and cloister decorations. Basically, the heart symbol, in Christian iconography was a stand in for the soul of Jesus. The Centurion who pierced Jesus' heart at the crucifixion with a lance was the first reference to the sacred heart in the scriptures - John 19:34

The most intriguing explanation for the heart symbol is linked to erotic love - and lies within the ruins of a classical city in North Africa. In the 7th century BC, in the city-state of Cyrene, there was a valuable plant called Silphium. The commercial trade of this now extinct species of fennel made Cyrene one of the richest cities in Africa until the founding of Alexandria. We are only now coming to understand why the Silphium plant was so highly valued that it was harvested to extinction. Silphium grew only in the small, upland, ecological zones surrounding the city of Cyrene in North Africa. Trade based on this now extinct species of Giant Fennel was of great commercial importance to Cyrene. Just what was so special about this plant?

Silphium has left its mark in modern society in a way that has not previously been recognized. Have you ever wondered why the human heart - the repository and the embodiment of romantic love - is always drawn stylized instead of in the natural shape of the human heart organ? The answer is rooted in the ancient function of Silphium! And the connection between this artistic convention and Silphium is found in the coinage of Cyrene, which features a seed pod of the revered plant."

Huh... Chinese philosophers and a plant seem to have brought us to the "heart of the matter." Who'd-a-thunk?

Lastly, in my research, as un-scientific as it may be (thanks to Google), I have uncovered that there is actually a Broken Heart Martini. Yup... we've taken our collective devastation into the bottle.

I'll be perfecting this recipe over the next few weeks. Cheers!