In Love With the Eiffel Tower? It’s Okay, I Might Be, Too.

I once saw a piece on 60 Minutes or some show like that about a woman who was in love with the Eiffel Tower.  Not the kind of “Ahh, I love the Eiffel Tower!” stuff people throw around freely just because they think it’s pretty. No, the kind of love that would have gotten you teased on the playground at school. You know, the old “if you love it so much, why don’t you marry it?” This woman was bona fide in lovewith a 1,063-foot metal structure. Loony, right? Craaaaazy. But to be honest, watching her I really didn’t think she was that weird. I mean, as I figured in my head that everyone else in the room had to be thinking what a nut job she was, I was actually thinking to myself, ‘thank goodness I’m not that bad.’ But I am that bad. Well, almost.

You see, I’ve also seen those same TV spots about the human brain’s reaction when a person sees the person he or she is in love with. There’s actual readable and measurable change in the brain activity that is not present when one is visualizing other people for whom they have no feelings. I’m not going to lie; I think I have that physical reaction when I see the Eiffel Tower. In fact, why stop there? I know I have a physical reaction to the Eiffel Tower, and I also have a change in brain activity – albeit lesser – when I see other sights in Paris. Just the act alone of seeing it does it for me, but it’s always augmented when there’s some element of surprise involved. Seeing the tip of it over a building as I’m walking through the city is fail-proof. Seeing its revolving light take its path atop those famous Parisian roofs always brings that tinge of excitement to my gut.  And of course there’s that moment when I come up from the Trocadéro station and walk past the Palais de Chaillot only to have that spectacular view on it and feel, well, love inside me.

Unfortunately, it seems very few people have ever experienced this love for something else – that is, something other than a human being. As tempted as I am to get all philosophical on you here, I will restrain myself and just offer that, contrary to what some of my closest friends and family believe, I do not love that massive collection of metal and bolts more than I do them. Rather it’s more likely that it serves as a concrete representation of me following my dreams. And I sincerely hope the day never comes that that feeling or reminder does not give me a positive physical reaction.