Reflections - A Journey Through Life

The most beautiful heart One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart as it was perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all agreed it to be truly the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart. Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said, "Why, your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine." The crowd and the young man looked at the old man's heart. It was beating strongly, but full of scars it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in, but they didn't fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing. The people stared—how can he say his heart is more beautiful, they thought. The young man looked at ...

Cost of a heart The heart pumps blood carrying food to the cells throughout the body, beating approximately 72 times per minute. If the heart ever ceases to pump blood, the body begins to shut down and after a very short period of time will die. With the average heart rate of 72 beats per minute the heart will pump about 10 litres per minute which is called Cardiac output. For a normal, non-athlete man of average age of 70 years, the cardiac output of the average human heart over a life time would be about 1 million litres. And the heart beats tirelessly for about 2.7 billion times in a lifetime of 70 years. I first met with hearts while playing cards. I was in school then. I somehow liked the beautiful red symbol. Exchanging hearts was not so openly common during those times. Today we see all pervading use of the symbol around. All and sundry, young and old alike fearlessly don shirts daubed with blood red heart. While growing up I lost my heart unknowingly ...