I’ve heard stories of a love so profound, it leaves the heart, it moves out of the chest, travels through arteries, out towards the shoulders, down past the biceps, sliding down the forearms until it reaches the hands. Hands that twitch for movement, that inch towards creation.
To love to the point of creation.
I’ve read this, or something like this, somewhere online. A screenshot of a tumblr post on my instagram feed. To love to the point of creation, as the stories say, is the truest form of love.
Rubber gloves—the ones healthcare workers use—were created because a surgical nurse’s husband couldn’t stand to see the harm on her hands from the constant sterilization. The love he held in his hands wanted to protect hers, his hands created a barrier between her skin and her work.
Goldfish, the bright, cheddar-flavored cracker, were shaped in devotion to the inventor’s wife, a Pisces. He made a snack just for her, in the shape of her astrological sign.
The Opera Building of Chicago has a particular form: a throne. The architect behind this building was married to an opera singer, whose career in New York was less than fruitful. For her, he designed her a to sing in with her back facing the East.
These stories I’ve heard, so far removed from their sources, feel more like myths than anecdotes. I don’t check to see if they are true. Their veracity isn’t what interests me. Their reality isn’t what I need. As they are—sweet, hopeful, inspiring romance—they are real enough.
Laboratorios Maver, a pharmaceutical lab in Chile, was baptized with a declaration of love. Maver is an acronym: “Mi amor verdadero es Rosa” (My true love is Rosa). It is an eternal reminder from the founder to his wife, one that persists and inspires.
Years later, from that lab came Tapsin, a flu medication my mother always bought and that I now stock in my cabinet from care packages sent across hemispheres. As the story goes, the creator was having marital problems took inspiration from his predecessor and gave the over-the-counter medication his own acronym: “Te amo por siempre Nora” (I love you always, Nora).
There’s no way to know what came of these declarations, these creations of love. But they are, I believe, the proof that a love so profound can transform the depth of emotion into something tangible and eternal.