Something less saccharine than "Follow your heart", please!

October 14, 2015 12:26 AM

What should I have engraved on the compass I'm using to propose to my guy? I'm normally good with words, but my brain is only churning out cheesy (and bland) and I'm stuck in a spiral of overthinking...

I'm proposing to my best friend on a backpacking trip very soon. I'm a gal, he's a dude. He will (for reasons which I cannot comprehend but for which I am undeniably grateful) definitely say "yes". Yay! Help me make the proposal "ring" as special as he is!
He's not a jewelry guy at all, so I'm giving him a decorative, antique-looking compass in place of a ring, since hiking and backpacking have been super important to our relationship, and since we'll be on the trail (the same place we fell in love!) when I do it. The compass looks something like this (yes, it's cheap and tacky! He's not really into valuables or trinkets, so this is just a vehicle with sentimental as opposed to actual value. I do plan to gift him with a NICE version on the evening of our eventual wedding...symbolizing making a promise permanent and all ). I want to have the compass engraved with something meaningful, but for the life of me everything I come up with sounds horribly trite and sappy. I get that this is kind of an inherently cheesy/sappy gesture, and that if it's from the heart (which it IS!) it will all be OK.....but please help me think of what to engrave so I can get out of my own damn head and stop second guessing everything!
It needs to be short (I think I have only around 40 characters per line on each surface, too cover or inside top cover, and maybe two or three lines to work with), and I'd like to play on the compass/adventure/direction theme. I plan on having the gps coordinates of the location where the proposal will happen engraved on one of the surfaces, but I'd also like to include some text. My ideas so far:
- "Having found each other, we'll never be lost again"
- "For our forever adventure"
- "I will follow you, anywhere and forever"

...and several variations on that theme. Literary quotes would be good, too....but please not the Thoreau "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams" one (Not a big fan of the Transcendentalists :p). How can I (snappily, powerfully, lovingly, possibly adorably?) express my desire to spend my life with this amazing man.......in 140 characters or less?

Thanks, all!

posted by anonymous to Writing & Language (46 answers total)

I don't know if you like Biblical references, but "I will follow you anywhere" might be expressed as Ruth 1:16: you could have the "whither thou goest" lines without the God reference if you prefer. There's also a line from the Song of Solomon that might suit: "Draw me after you; let us run together."
posted by Aravis76 at 12:56 AM on October 14, 2015 [6 favorites]

Also, congratulations!
posted by Aravis76 at 12:57 AM on October 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

What a cute idea. Reading your post, the first thing I thought of was the song "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?". So my suggestion is:

What are you doing the rest of your life?
North and South and
East and West of your life?
posted by sevenofspades at 12:57 AM on October 14, 2015 [6 favorites]

KEEP AWAY FROM STRONG MAGNETIC FIELDS

It's how you take care of both a compass and a marriage.
posted by three blind mice at 1:05 AM on October 14, 2015 [14 favorites]

let's find our way together
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:21 AM on October 14, 2015 [14 favorites]

Home is anywhere we are together

(Alternately "home is wherever I'm with you" but those are song lyrics.)

You're my true north.

Our journeys have led us to each other.

My heart has pointed to you.
posted by Crystalinne at 1:44 AM on October 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Let's get lost together.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:45 AM on October 14, 2015 [4 favorites]

I'd be lost without you?
posted by BoscosMom at 1:47 AM on October 14, 2015 [8 favorites]

Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
While that may be too long, you could re-work the idea into "Let us look outward together in the same direction."
Congratulations.
posted by missmary6 at 1:54 AM on October 14, 2015 [12 favorites]

I won't need this anymore, I've found what I looking for.
posted by BoscosMom at 2:15 AM on October 14, 2015 [6 favorites]

" Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things:
One foot he centered, and the other turned
Round through the vast profundity obscure"

—John Milton, Paradise Lost

Also good if you are a fan of "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman.
posted by rongorongo at 2:16 AM on October 14, 2015

Matrimony; the high sea for which no compass has yet been invented.
Heinrich Heine
posted by HuronBob at 3:58 AM on October 14, 2015 [8 favorites]

"Take this compass. All great adventurers need one."
And then your initials and proposal date.

It's a quote from a fictional character (Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation) but it does resonate.
posted by kimberussell at 4:16 AM on October 14, 2015 [5 favorites]

"Travel light."
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 4:40 AM on October 14, 2015

I will love you every step of the way.
posted by colfax at 4:47 AM on October 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

"Let's go."
posted by snowmentality at 4:50 AM on October 14, 2015 [21 favorites]

Or if you speak French or are Doctor Who fans, "Allons-y."
posted by snowmentality at 4:53 AM on October 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Seconding the quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery that @missmary6 suggested:

Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

If you want something kinda funny, I'd go with:

To keep us on the straight and narrow, together.
posted by OrangeDisk at 6:17 AM on October 14, 2015

The journey is our home.

No road is long with good company.
posted by warriorqueen at 6:18 AM on October 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

"Align your co-ordinates with mine."
posted by Segundus at 6:19 AM on October 14, 2015

Oh, one more idea:

My favorite hiking mantra is "Solvitur ambulando" (It is solved by walking).
posted by OrangeDisk at 6:24 AM on October 14, 2015 [4 favorites]

"So that you never lose your way,
and you keep your sense of wonder."

(quote by fictional Einstein from the movie I.Q.)
posted by mikepop at 6:35 AM on October 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Shorten one of your original thoughts to just "Anywhere and forever." Moving in its simplicity.
posted by Liesl at 6:55 AM on October 14, 2015 [23 favorites]

Do you have any inside couple-jokes or "secret code" type phrases that you use? Even if they are goofy, those sorts of things can be both meaningful and romantic through the magic of being YOURS.
posted by oblique red at 6:59 AM on October 14, 2015

Here, there, everywhere.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:54 AM on October 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Melville: “It is not down on any map; true places never are.”
posted by libraritarian at 8:14 AM on October 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Is he obnoxiously into puns?
"May our dreams encompass us"
posted by eisforcool at 8:21 AM on October 14, 2015 [3 favorites]

"Yours to the ends of the earth"
posted by jessamyn at 8:22 AM on October 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

You're my light, my love,
My one true North

-or-

Be my light, my love,
My one true North
posted by lock sock and barrel at 8:25 AM on October 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

A Rose of the Winds
For the Rose of my Heart.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:28 AM on October 14, 2015

"Constant as the Northern Star" if you like Shakespeare or Julius Caesar.
posted by skewed at 8:30 AM on October 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

"May this always lead you/point you home to me."

love this idea! It's awesome.
posted by john_snow at 8:42 AM on October 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is a great idea...I did something very similar - mine was a compass ring that had an amber stone and a screw-on compass top. We both love to read, and the occasion was in Iceland when we viewed the Northern Lights, so it was easy to work in some spiel about the "Golden Compass", "Northern Lights", and the "Amber Spyglass"...but that's probably meaningful only if you're already familiar with Philip Pullman and His Dark Materials trilogy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials

To make it unique to both of you, do you have any memorable phrases from your hiking sessions? Perhaps something tied to specific memories, so that reading the quote would trigger a smile...e.g. "Oh crap, we're lost again" or "Let's eat first and navigate later".

I really like the understated simplicity of snowmentality's "Let's go" too.

All the best with your proposal :)
posted by appleses at 9:18 AM on October 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

And you,
A windrose, a compass
My direction, my description of the world.

posted by theora55 at 10:16 AM on October 14, 2015

Came in to suggest something about "True North".

The compass itself looks pretty small, and you're engraving on a circle. You probably won't be able to get a multi-sentence quote engraved on it. I would definitely go more for just a short phrase. I think "You're my True North" is about as long as you could feasibly get with this.

If it were me, I'd probably do something like:

TRUE NORTH

[your initials] + [his initials]

will you...?

Or you could always go with just engraving WILL YOU MARRY ME? on the compass since most people don't see a compass and assume a proposal is afoot.
posted by Sara C. at 11:04 AM on October 14, 2015

Here's another idea I just thought of, from the poem Ithaca by Cavafy:

When you set out on the voyage to Ithaca,
pray that your journey may be long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
posted by OrangeDisk at 11:33 AM on October 14, 2015

Two Lives
One Ley Line
A Map of My Heart
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:25 PM on October 14, 2015

“Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.”

Mary Oliver



'We are all travellers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.'

Robert Louis Stephenson
posted by honey-barbara at 2:13 PM on October 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

For Our Journey
posted by Caskeum at 2:18 PM on October 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

"For our new path together"

I like a lot of the ideas in this thread and I like the idea of including your initials or names if you can fit it. Cool idea for a proposal. Good luck and preemptive congrats!
posted by AppleTurnover at 2:22 PM on October 14, 2015

I found you.
posted by juliplease at 2:23 PM on October 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

A couple of objections to sentiments suggested here:

• "True North": compasses don't indicate true north. They indicate magnetic north and then you must adjust for declension.
• "Constant as the Northern Star": makes me think of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You" ("Just before our love got lost you said 'I am as constant as a northern star.' Constantly in the darkness? Where is that at? If you want me I'll be in the bar..") Perhaps avoid this as your sentiment if your beloved is a music fan.

posted by Nerd of the North at 2:50 PM on October 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Uh, I seriously considered answering with the Julius Caesar quotation mentioned above (constant as the northern star) but decided not to because of the context. It's how Caesar seals his fate - he is resolutely, smugly refusing to pardon Publius Cimber even as his nobles plead with him, and it gets his imperial ass stabbed to death by the end of his speech. It is Very Much Not Romantic except possibly in the Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham school of romance.
posted by gingerest at 4:03 AM on October 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Guys! I'm the OP, and since the deed has been done, anonymity is no longer necessary.

Soooooooo, I went with the gps coordinates and the following (we both have French Canadian background):
"Allons-y, anywhere and forever".

But here's the thing: the bastard proposed to ME on the hike before I got my chance to do my bit!! I guess that means his answer is yes?? :p

Anywho, I'm over the moon, he loved the compass, and everything is beautiful. Thanks for your suggestions and ideas and support!


Yaaaaaaaaaay!
posted by Dorinda at 8:24 PM on October 17, 2015 [10 favorites]

Make sure you're standing north of him when you propose, and something along the lines of "this will always bring you home."
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 4:24 PM on October 18, 2015

ho diddly derp ignore me

YAAAAY! Mazel tov!
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 4:25 PM on October 18, 2015