There are so many things in this world that I seem destined never to understand.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
For instance, just what does Lara Bingle actually do? Near as I can tell she’s famous for turning up to parties and being the ex-girlfriend of a Test cricketer. And yet for someone who commands so much attention - she’s now even got her own TV show - I’m still none the wiser as to what she actually does from nine-to-five.
I’m also at a loss to work out why anyone thinks Lakyn Heperi from The Voice can sing. His mumbling vocal stylings are full of affectations and most of the time he just looks like he’s having a sulk on stage.
Closer to home, something else I’ll never get is the whole ‘‘love lock’’ thing. You know what I’m talking about - padlocks couples in love get engraved with things like ‘‘Shaz and Baz 2getha 4eva’’ and then lock onto some public structure that they don’t even own.
There was quite a kerfuffle just over a month ago when Wollongong City Council took the bolt cutters to several hundred love locks up at the Mt Keira lookout. A day later Roads and Maritime Services announced it would be doing the same to the rusty, unsightly hunks of metal dangling from the Sea Cliff Bridge.
The Mercury’s website went into meltdown, as seemingly every single person in Wollongong left a comment on the stories.
Now, despite having a month to work out the appeal of whacking a big fat lock on a public structure, I’m still totally and utterly clueless.
While I abhor the self-interest in someone thinking it’s okay to put the padlocks on a public structure (to me it’s akin to someone spray-painting a message of love on it), it would make some sort of sense if the location had significance to the couple.
Perhaps the location was the site of where they met, or where they had their first date, or even where they got married.
But I’d be certain the overwhelming majority of those relationships represented by those love locks actually have no connection to either the lookout or the bridge. So they’re not doing it to express genuine feelings of love so much as doing it because everyone else is.
But if they are doing it to express their love, aren’t they better off just telling the other person how they feel? Surely wrapping your arms around someone and saying ‘‘I love you’’ is more personal and special than an item bought from Bunnings?
For the life of me I simply cannot understand how we got to a point where people think ‘‘I love you so much I’m going to put this padlock on this chain link fence, babe’’. Okay, sure the padlock is supposed to symbolise that a couple is locked together forever, but that symbolism is clearly faulty, given that padlocks are easily opened with a key - or the council’s bolt cutters.
I’m also not sure just who the symbolism of the padlock is directed at. If it was just meant for the couple whose names are engraved upon it, then it would make sense to have the padlock affixed to their front gate at home, where they could bask it its symbolism every day.
And yet the locks are placed in a public place, which implies that the lock is supposed to carry some meaning for the rest of us. Yet it doesn’t, because to anyone barring the couple, the padlock is nothing more than a hunk of metal dangling off a bridge.
Instead of putting in all that effort to make a gesture of how they feel to a lot of people who don’t really care, perhaps they’d be better off simply saying how they feel - to the one person who does.