Three Beats
Goldilocks and the three bears might be the first three things that made any sense to us as children, but as we age, three seems to appear again and again.
When the heart generates it’s first electric impulse, sodium and potassium exchange places through a third part called a membrane, the three forming a pump which generates ions and translates into energy via the Sinoatrial node at the top of the heart muscle. This contracts the top of the heart.
Meanwhile the Atrial Ventricular node located mid-heart is catching this electrical signal and slowing it down enough to translate into a workable contraction of the ventricles.
Finally, the impulse is released from the Atrial Ventricular node and into the bundle branches and distributed for repolarization.
So, while most people hear the double thwump, thwump of the human heart through a stethoscope. A cardiac monitor technician like myself sees Ba, Da, Bump, or a gallop, on our screens, as we watch the rhythm of life pass us by during our day-to-days.
You see, even the heart beats in threes.
Curiously, I didn't learn this from watching cardiac monitors, or by working as a decorated Florida EMT over the course of ten years. I learned this from breaking hearts.
That’s right. It’s nothing to be proud of.
In fact, it has been as terrible for me as it was for those ever entered my embrace. What is joy without pain? I suppose, if we survive the destruction of love, it is best that we lived it in the first place. That, and there is always hope as long as there is breath.
Hope that those we have loved will one day emerge like spring flowers after a long winter rain or snow. Us nodding and rising among them.
It’s a shame Tom Petty’s Wildflowers is a 4/4 time signature instead of a triple meter. That would have been a great three beat reference!
In my youth, I had what now would surely be diagnosed as obsessive compulsive disorder. I yearned for absolute perfection in a world that was far from that in every way. I worked very hard at it. Had daily drills to perfect my physique, daily explorations to perfect my knowledge, and daily chores and…
