Dumb Things That Make The Heart Beat
In the big life moments, there’s a certain unmistakable way that your heart beats to let you know you truly care — a cardiac confirmation that whatever is happening really matters.
Think about the moment you realized you loved someone or the wash and glow you wear after a major accomplishment.
Well, this blog will have nothing to do with that.
Because, for the fourteenth time, I just rewatched the Celtics make it to the NBA Finals, and you could not tell by my heart rate that I’m not in the middle of a gunfight right now.
My point is there are also dumb moments that rightly or wrongly, but in this case surely wrongly, induce the same feeling.
Sometimes though, it’s just a testament to an artist or a piece of art.
In 2019, in the only movie theater near my college campus, my heart raced when I learned that part of the hero’s journey was the end¹. Witnessing one of the last great moments of entertainment monoculture, I watched as the MCU landed all of its sprawling planes with Avengers Endgame.
Now, I know what you’re asking, would a mentally sane person be this invested in a story about superheroes?
To protect my feelings, we won’t answer that question.
But I can only tell you that in that moment, when we found out that real heroes were the friends we made along the way, my heart beat in a way that reminded me how truly alive I was.
Should I be embarrassed by that?
Probably. Like — almost definitely.
Having said that, the monotony of the day-to-day does its best to lull you into apathy. Between sparse moments of living, I feel like I’m only surviving.
And for that reason, I think that anything that makes the heart go, however dumb, should be celebrated.
So whether it’s a sports team or a movie, or an artist, or a book, it almost doesn’t matter why you care, it only matters that, against better judgment, you do care — about this incredibly dumb thing.
So shout out to the dumb things.
Mainly the Boston Celtics winning games though.
Thanks for reading and please love yourself.
- While that was the end of a phase of Marvel movies, and the end of them making passable movies as a whole, it was not the end of a friendship I cherish dearly with the boy I watched it with. So that’s cool
