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The heart is a central image for love and kindness, and those who lack compassion are often called heartless. However, there can be a fine line between insensitivity and doing what needs to be done. The plea for a heart can be used seriously or in a joking manner.
As anyone who has read a book, watched television, or talked to two other people knows, the world is pretty evenly divided between the compassionate and understanding people and those who really don’t want to hear it. A quick look back into the mists of time might not identify exactly when people started using the human heart as a metaphor for love or kindness, but there’s no question that, in any language, it’s a central image for just that. This. People who squint at anyone begging for forgiveness or understanding are often told, “Have a heart!”
Here’s an idiom that makes perfect sense. Someone who only cares about money and power is often described as heartless, an idiom that has become so commonly used that no one stops to consider it is really a compound word and a metaphor in itself. At the same time, perhaps this heartless individual suffered a loss or pain so profound that it caused his heart to harden or harden against future pain. After all, a heart that can’t be pierced is a heart that can’t be broken.
There can be a fine line between an individual who is, deep down, so cold that blood doesn’t seem to course through their veins and one who is simply doing what needs to be done. A group of employees who are given the pink slip may find the boss who gave them insensitive. In fact, it’s possible that the boss didn’t have the heart to let everyone go and was forced to do so by his superior. Such a leader would no doubt regret it from his heart.
The plea for a heart is not always addressed to leering bosses or cold-hearted lovers. Many idioms, especially common ones, have two levels of usage. The first is what the idiom was originally meant to mean. At some point, however, it’s only natural for a joker to turn the idiom into a joke.
This is one such expression and is often used in a joking or mocking way. A boyfriend who knows his crush won’t give him more than a single kiss might beg her for a heart. A soccer fan might lament, “Have a heart,” when a call is made signifying the team’s fate. A high school teacher might ask a popular but rude student who insists on nagging the less popular ones to have a heart.
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