By Ritzy Ryciak

Love shows up in the wildest places. It is wily, elusive and, recently, dressed up as Elvis and a life-size teddy bear.

On a glittery January night at the Experience Music Project (EMP), colored stage-lights bounced around the room and reflected off rhinestones and satin bellbottoms. Twenty-eight “Elvii” sauntered through the room, ready to compete in the ninth annual Elvis Invitationals, Seattle’s longest-running amateur Elvis contest.

Islander Kevin Fitzpatrick, Department of Ecology’s regional water-quality supervisor, paced backstage, preparing for his performance. His wife Annette, an assistant professor at the University of Washington in epidemiology research, is in the bathroom putting on her teddy bear outfit.

Kevin, dressed in a regal purple satin jumpsuit, handmade by Annette, sang “Teddy Bear.” Annette was his back-up bear.

Kevin and Annette, married for 28 years, have figured out a way to keep their romance rockin.’

“Having a `back-up-bear’ means that you have someone to help you through those more difficult and stressful periods of one’s life,” said Annette, a scientist for most of her life.

Kevin and Annette, both biology majors, met in a college lab.

Annette knew that Kevin was the one when, while studying for a lab exam, he picked up a dissected frog, put a cigarette in its mouth and made it dance.

“Everyone knows when you have met someone that you want to be with,” says Annette with a grin. “That was my epiphany — it was the dancing, smoking frog.”

Two children and a lifetime of science behind them, the couple use biology as a way to help explain this thing we call “love.”

“As human beings, our emotional and spiritual well-being is very integrated into our biology,” said Kevin. “Thus, our `fitness’ and our health rely heavily upon having loving relationships. Love provides a number of things that make life fulfilling: companionship, someone to laugh at your jokes and to laugh with, a sounding-board or way to `get out of yourself’ and the physical aspect — touching and caring that everyone craves.”

Tonight, love provides a partner to go on stage with. It is a support system that adds to the show and helps Kevin place in the top 10 Elvis performers.

“If you think about `biology’ as involving the continuation of the species and survival of the fittest,” said Annette. “Then you can’t ignore all of the psychological and social aspects of love and its importance to our survival.”

Having a support system provides an adaptive advantage. You’re not alone, synergy takes over and suddenly the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

“The most primitive organisms reproduce asexually — they don’t need contact with another of their own species to reproduce,” said Annette. “Sexual reproduction allowed species to mix their genes, providing genetic variability, which allows for better adaptability to stressful situations — like an ice age or singing `Viva Las Vegas.”’

“Love allows us to rely on each other,” added Kevin. “It is the most profound connection that develops between individuals and essentially transcends biology. An organism, human or not, is completely egotistical without love.”

Kevin and Annette define love as knowing that there is always someone there — the ever-present back-up bear. It is self-sacrifice, giving up of oneself for the two and knowing when you need a back-up bear or when you need to be the back-up bear.

“(Kevin) knows what it is for me,” she said. “It is letting go of the bad stuff. When you live with someone for 28 years, bad things are going to happen. You have to let it go and do what you need to do so that you can laugh again.”

The `F’ word, so easy to say and so difficult to practice, enters the conversation.

“Forgiveness allows mistakes,” said Annette. “Not a single person, animal or microbe, will live its life in perfect harmony without screwing up sometimes. In some cases, like a failure to keep alert to predators, the mistake is fatal. Similarly, a relationship without forgiveness is doomed.”

Forgiveness offers that second chance and the opportunity to re-establish trust.

“Biologically speaking, forgiveness allows a loving relationship to adapt and thrive,” concluded Kevin. He kisses his teddy bear, and for a moment the biology of love and forgiveness make perfect sense.

In the wise words of Elvis: Love me tender, Love me sweet, Never let me go, You have made my life complete And I love you so.