Hmmm,
Another way of counting my life expectancy would be the number of heartbeats I might reasonably expect to have. So let's see here, at an average heartrate of , say, 72 bpm:
72 x 60(minutes in an hour) = 4,320 bphour
4,320 x 24(hours in a day) = 103,680 bpday
103,680 x 365.25(days in a year) = 37,869,120 bpyear
37,869,120 x 75(years in my life) = 2,840,184,000 heartbeats in my lifetime.
Now, I don't believe that my heartspring was wound up with a certain number of beats from the moment it began ticking, it's just another way of using a number to look at the way I live my life.
So if I've got roughly 2.8 billion beats in my chest to work with, I think I should try to be sure that enough of them are spent with my heart trip-hammering with excitement. Sexual exitement, competitive exertion, adrenalin sports, and challenging the bogeymen of my fears.
I should try to be be sure enough of them are spent percussing loud and slow within me, as I share my partner's afterglow.
My heart should expend enough beats for my brain to encompass the much larger thoughts of people who think more deeply than I do.
I should take care that my heart does not beat fast for what I cannot have.
I should notice how smoothly my heart beats when I am doing good for others, how congestive and panicked my heartbeat becomes when I set myself up for disaster.
With 2.8 billion heartbeats to work with, I can only hope I spend mine well, and that I don't waste them on people who don't care that, in the end, my number is finite.
Eric