Rusty, weather-beaten love...

I took this picture back in July when I was in Finland visiting my family. It was taken on a footbridge in the small city of Tampere about 176 kilometres north of Helsinki. My brother @tarazkp his lovely wife @momone and the cutest kid ever, my niece @smallsteps, were great hosts and left me with a really great understanding of what life looks like for them in Finland and we did some sightseeing around the area and Helsinki. This image was taken during a nice walk around the central city area of Tampere. I'm sorry, I don't know what the bridge is called but it had hundreds of padlocks, engraved with lovers names, locked onto it as often happens on bridges in cities.

See that padlock in the middle of the picture above? The old rusty, hammered up one...It made me think about love...Long-term love. Old, rusty, hammered up love. You see, love, [and I mean between two people, not the love of donuts], is alive...Meaning it's fluid and changeable; What was a particular sort of love between two school-sweethearts may be a completely different thing in their 30s or 50's...If they are still together. Does it get any less powerful or encompassing...More? Well, it's situational and subjective of course.

I knew some younger people in their very early 20's who believed that at their age they loved more passionately than someone in their 40's or 50's. I couldn't really address their idiocy though, they were millennials and so knew everything. I think love is an individual thing and can be just as passionate and strong when found at 50 years old than at 25. It's really up to the people involved to create the sort of love and passion around themselves that they desire, need and want.

Have you ever seen an older couple walking down the street hand in hand? I have, and I always wonder about their story. Have they recently met after being widowed, have they been together since a very young age? I think it's nice that they still desire that simple human gesture of contact though. I mean maybe they've been together, married for 60 years and here they are, in their 80's, still together and holding hands in a public display of affection. Nice huh? So, is passion, and love still achievable as older people? Sure as hell is I think.

Like the rusty old padlock on that bridge in Tampere love can endure. It can withstand stormy weather, some tarnish or rust; It can withstand the test of time. Love can be as steadfastly secure as that lock is on that bridge, unbreakable. Love can also open and close...It's not a trap, more a safe place to feel secure, or free when the need arises. But unlike the padlock love can be flexible. It can adapt, ebb and flow...That's what helps it stand the test of time, the march of time.

When I saw this padlock amongst other shiny and new ones I wondered who placed it there...Old lovers or retro-loving funky young ones...We'll never know of course. What we do know is that their love brought them to place the padlock there as a symbol of their enduring love. Will their relationship, and indeed love, last the test of time to become rusty and beaten, but secure like their padlock? I hope so.

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