AND THE BEAT GOES ON

By Jerry Gervase

I saw a commercial on television for a local hospital, mentioning that in an average lifetime a heart beats more than two billions times.  The crux of the commercial was that the hospital's heart center was geared to make sure one didn't fall below average.

Naturally it sparked my curiosity so my first thought was to wonder where I am on their cardiac curve.  Math was my worst subject in schol so I am below average on how to proceed.  I am not sure if my heart beat coincides with my pulse or if they march to a different beat.  Then there are those times when I can barely feel a pulse which may be the result of a laid back lifestyle.

Someone more mathematically knowledgeable than myself may figure the number of seconds in a year (if a heart beats about once every second) then multiply that number by one's age to see how they've traveled down the road of an "average" life.  I can probably Google that information and not only learn the answer but at the same time find the best place to buy blood pressure monitors, learn the address of heart specialists in my area, and where to purchase and any number of products that may contribute to a healthy heart.  A quick reference search tells me that the average heart beats between 70 - 75 times per minute with women and young children's hearts beating faster along with other mitigating circumstances.  Just thinking about them causes an increase in my heart rate.  Besides, I really don'twant to know since I am already beyond the biblical three score and ten.

What does interest me is how often the heart is used to describe the human condition and foibles.  King Richard was lion-hearted; hard-hearted Hanna was the belle of Savannah, GA; many Victorian heroines were faint-hearted; so-and-so is a bleeding heart Liberal; one can convert to a different mindset by having a change of heart; I can cross my heart, and if  I have good intentions my is in the right place.

Speaking clinically, the heart is a powerful muscle.  It is slightly larger than a clenched fist. It is a pump sending oxygen-rich blood through all parts of your body.  Blood contains oxygen and nutrients that every cell in our bodies need to survive.  The oxygen-rich blood travels throughout the arteries and vessels, nourishing the body so that it can function properly.  A heart pumps a million barrels of blood during the average lifetime - enough to fill three supertankers.

There are approximately 6 quarts of blood in the human body but the pumping station may hold only a few ounces at one time.  How many ?  I don't know but someone told me 16 ounces if you're a Republican and about an ounce and a half if you're a Democrat.

Regardless of all the facts, figures, and estimates of how much blood this extraordinary muscle can hold it remains just that - an extraordinary muscle, a remarkable pumping station.  Yet something magical can happen to this muscle.  It becomes a heart, the seat of  feeling and thought, a many splendored thing, when it is pierced by sorrow, or leaps for joy, holds love, distributes it freely, and beats for others.