Apparently it all started in Serbia before WWII, when couples in the town of Vrnjacka Banja started writing down their names on locks, to symbolically seal their love. The trend has spread to the bridges of Paris, that most romantic of cities... and apparently at least one couple decided the footbridge to Roberts Park in Saltaire deserved their declaration of eternal love. Lovers love them; many other people hate them for spoiling pretty or fragile bridges and the local authorities fight a losing battle to prevent the damage they do. It seems that the sheer weight of locks now on some of the Parisian bridges is a problem, never mind the aesthetics.
As for me, I'm afraid I'm too cynical. Love seems to me at best a hazardous, fragile enterprise. It needs space to grow and change. Best to come at it with a sense of lightness and freedom, rather than seeking to bind it. To love is to be vulnerable....
I guess it is better than carving into trees now as the numbers have grown.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of my youth when I was in love all 5 min I would have needed a bridge all for myself, lol ! Besides that a lock belongs rather to a prison.
ReplyDeleteI've seen these in America too. They do tend to make the bridge or fence look shabby. A tender loving kiss is a better way to show your love.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be spreading. Another British friend just posted on the lock of love too, he'd first seen them in Italy but now found one in Scotland
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