It was easy for me to describe what I felt when I first encountered you. I had a sense about what to expect. Afterall, you have been lost and found, written about, engaged in, fallen out of, and longed for since the beginning of time.
People fall in love. We fall in love with one another, with animals, with homes, with cars, with music, and sometimes we fall in love with wrought iron lattice towers.
You’ve been featured in movies for more than 100 years. Your presence is frequently part of some scene where couples are captured, walking about your grounds, hand in hand, giving thought to things like “till death do us part.” As a kid, I was struck by the sentiments of love that were so consistently triggered by your distinctive iron silhouette.
Your language is calming, smooth, and melodic. It evokes emotional feelings that match your style and grace perfectly. Whenever we see you in photos or video, day or night, we know who you are and something about what you represent.
La Tour Eiffel. The Eiffel Tower.
When you were first constructed, you were hated. Some threatened to tear you down. Now, you are recognized and loved all over the world. People stand in line for hours to see you and to experience you. You offer them exquisite views of the Haussmann architectural world that surrounds you. You were described as useless and monstrous by the likes of Guy de Maupassant, Alexander Dumas, Jr., and other French artists and intellectuals.
At the time of your construction, you were only supposed to stand for 20-years. But someone realized, because of your height, that you were the perfect place for a telegraph antenna. At 985-ft, you were the tallest structure in the world for 41 years, until 1930. That’s when the Chrysler Building in New York was built. Then, in 1957, you were adorned with an antenna which added 67-ft to your height, making you second tallest structure in the world, behind the Empire State Building.
I’ve captured you in all of your splendor, in full photos, partial photos, with me standing by your side, and you, all alone. I’ve visited you in the summer, in the fall, and in the winter. But never in spring. In 2024, I’ll see you again, when the air is crisp and the leaves on the trees turn to auburn and gold. For me, autumn is the season when the City of Light beckons you to share your luminous beauty and calming passion with the world at-large.
For many, you represent the power of peace and love joined together in elegance – creating hope for a better tomorrow.
Today’s world needs you to guide each of us toward that better tomorrow. We need that feeling I had when I first met you. The world needs more LOVE.
La Tour Eiffel, je t’aime!
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