Pulse Taking

An occasion happens. We note its specialness. It causes us to think a bit more, to feel more. I stop and ponder related meanings. Shortly I realize I am taking the pulse of my life, determining what really matters to me. What has mattered to me all along. Is it a simple belief? A person, a single person in my life? Is it my kids? My ideology? My what? Exactly. What is it that matters the most to me.

That is what I’m getting at. What matters the most to me, you, to all of us?

That is a powerful question, isn’t it? Considering it, I quickly think about special people in my life. I think of my own ability to survive life at all, its many slings and arrows. But then things pop to mind. A special antique, or the home itself, or the things I usually take for granted. Along this path lies an appreciation for money that is produced by career, and then the career itself, the colleagues, institutions and connections aplenty.

Along with money is what it provides most, power to gain other things. Goods and services for one, influence over others for another.

In the final analysis I get the impression there is no final analysis. Too many things and ideas get in the way of making a final conclusion. I wonder if anyone has. Love for self seems too selfish to be counted, yet to many this is the final conclusion. Without that love, can you even love another? With plenty of things in our possession, do we even fully appreciate what they are let alone be our final conclusion? To the poor and homeless, shelter is penultimate, but only if he has food to eat and clothes to cover the nakedness. So where does that leave shelter? Obviously in an order of everything else.

No, taking pulse of one’s life is not an easy or quick matter. But it seems we need to take some pulses if we are to survive our present political environment well. Think about that, then take your pulse again.

August 29, 2025

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