Joyas Voladoras

     The meaning I take from Brian Doyle's Joyas Voladoras is that all hearts are different physically, but emotionally we all have weaknesses that can break our hearts.  I think it is discouraging and pessimistic because it says "You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant..." and "All hearts finally are bruised and scarred, scored and torn..."This means that no matter what we do to protect ourselves from heartbreak, we will always be hurt in the end.  One of my favorite lines is "...the memory of your father's voice early in the morning echoing from the kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children..."  I like this like because I can relate to it.  Every Sunday morning my dad wakes up early and makes pancakes for me and my sisters before church.  It is something we look forward to, and has become kind of a tradition.