Elephant’s Heart

This is the first post of a blog that wants to be a semi-serious space where I write my semi-serious ideas. I am not sure how many people will come to read these pages, but I hope my twelve readers will appreciate. Here I will talk about the unusual day when I realized I wanted to start the blog.

Actually nothing particularly unusual happened “for real” on that day, but in my head a series of uncorrelated events created a gothic picture that made me wonder about my own mortality. 

Event 1. I have had a kind of mild muscular pain to my chest for a while. Nothing that a young healthy person should worry about, but of course one starts wondering: “maybe I have heart problems or similar..” who wouldn’t?

Event 2. I am in London for work and I have some time to spare. I randomly pass by the Museum of Zoology and of course I decide to visit. Great museum! And very gothic with all these skeletons and animal parts preserved in formaldehyde. The item that most captures my attention is of course an elephant’s heart. Impressive. The connection is clear with my thoughts of today about the precariousness of my own heart.

Event 3. I am walking towards the tube station and I cross path with a skeletal girl all dressed in black. Of course in my mind this is Death who is coming for me. Actually a moment later I feel very sorry for this thought, as this is clearly a girl with medical issues, but what can I do, it contributes to the gothic picture that has been taking shape in my mind on that day.

Event 4. I am on the bus on the way home and the clock turns “17:00”, as it does every day. I am not superstitious, but I remember why people are about the number 17. It comes from Latin, as “XVII” can anagram “VIXI” (I lived).

After I exit from my gothic picture, I realize I would like to start writing a blog. I don’t have anything particularly clever to add about my reflections about mortality, but I have a reading advice. It comes to my mind a very good book that I read on the subject: “The Eternal Life” by Fernando Savater. In the book the author also discusses the artwork “The PhysicalImpossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living” by Damien Hirst. This artwork actually consists of a tiger shark preserved in formaldehyde… So you can surely see the connection with my elephant’s heart. 

                                                   The Grant Museum of Zoology in London.