THE HEART IS A FUNNY THING.  People view it in extremes (which almost jives with the biblical picture).  It may be deceitful, but it is also the springs of life.  So I try to understand the heart in a middle way, as the organ of hope.  Hope is a key component to the life of the heart.  You’d think this would be an important part of every good conversation: the role the heart plays in everything we do.  Our hearts are either in it or they aren’t.

And so in the last episode of How I Met Your Mother for 2012, when Barney popped the question to Robin, it was also about Ted and about Lily and Marshall and Marvin.  When life is lived well, hearts get caught up together like that.  And the song that played as Ted finally let go of his Robin-hope and as Barney embraced his, Fort Atlantic’s “Let Your Heart Hold Fast,” captures the bittersweet reality of that moment, and every moment like it, well.  It’s a great Christmas present from a quality show.  It even echoes what angels always say: never fear.