Symmetrical Heart

It's Valentine's Day and I have to wonder where the <3 shaped heart came from. A real heart looks nothing like the iconographic pink heart that you find in your tasty box of lucky charms. I guess a four-chambered heart with bicuspid and tricuspid valves isn't as photogenic as the little, symmetrical heart but some strong aesthetic liberties were taken when coming up with what we now consider to be a heart.

Perhaps the problems isn’t what the heart looks like, perhaps the entire problems lies in the fact that the heart is not symmetrical? Different valves on each side and the fact that veins come out on side and arteries go in the other (I have a 50/50 chance of getting that right) may not be the most photogenic of characteristics. Come to think of it, smiley faces, the white house and most other icons are symmetrical. Perhaps asymmetry is a sign of evil? There's an inherent reason football fields are evenly distanced from the 50-yard-line but there's nothing to stop baseball players from playing on a baseball diamond that has a longer distance from second to third than from second to first.

I also gave blood today. So maybe the heart is on my mind and I'm lightheaded from the donation? Either way I can live with the <3 heart as long as we don't hate the heart because it's asymmetrical.