It’s been a long day
I’m sitting in the recovery room, waiting for a late evening case to start
The PACU nurses tend to two patients at opposing sides of the room
Familiar cacophony of sounds – monitors softly speaking, informing the staff about their charges
Heartbeat, pulse oximeter timbre, quiet respiratory alarm
It’s my 7th case, I’m starting to fade
The sounds are relaxing, soothing.
All is well
Suddenly I hear the disconjugate beeps of the two heart monitors
Draw together, until
For just a few precious seconds
These two total strangers
Completely unaware of one another
Share a pulse – their hearts beating in perfect sync – the two sounds indistinguishable

A beautifully symmetrical moment, almost lost

In the next second, as if it hadn’t happened, their hearts diverge - once more strangers
one to one another
unaware of an incredibly intimate moment shared

Sitting there, waiting for the case
I imagine
An instant in the course of history
Where, for one fleeting breath,
Humanity’s rhythm converged
Billions of hearts in time, a nerve impulse propagated across the planet
before scattering to the winds
A potent event, possibly one of many that even
In our modern world, still remains in the mystical

Cults
Have risen
Praising Thinkers
Praising those who melt all thought to Quiet
Those who take no risks propose a middle ground
All meaningless endeavors


Reality beyond our reach
As we grow, reproduce, die….a higher order fruit fly
Absorbed
By the perceived crucial nature of our role in the universe

What then, of our shared experience?
What of the revealed sacred in nature?

God speaks, transcending Thought and Quiet
Allowing reality to be understood
Providing a bed for compassion
A keystone for mercy and grace

An unattainable goal surfaces, wild and enthusiastic in my mind
Even as other unattainable goals lie
With the boot heel of my laziness on their throat
Taking in last gasps of air
They never breathed in the first place.
Nevertheless the new goal gleams, hopeful and full of life:
I will not read any news originating from the North American continent.
For as long as I can tolerate it.

Disney
Like America
Looks awesome in the brochure
But feels faded and slightly forced
A bit of a letdown after the buildup

Still
Wild eyed zealots
Sacrifice their year’s savings at the altar of the mouse
A western Hajj eulogized by matching Toy Story t shirts

I really feel
I missed an important moment of cultural indoctrination
That left me insensitive
To the draw of this place.

A surprise comes though,
As instead of the expected moral superiority
I feel a sense
Of loneliness
And societal exclusion
As I watch
An old man with a silhouette of Mickey Mouse tattooed on his forearm  
Happily
Buy a Bud Light for $5.95