




What does one really think of when asked about the word “heart”? By definition, the heart is “a hollow pump like organ of blood circulation…” and “the center of the total personality, especially with reference to intuition, feeling or emotion” (dictionary.com). Though those may be very basic definitions, there are multiple things that can be said about the heart. The heart is one of the most fascinating elements in life that helps control the many things that goes on inside a living object, whether it be a human or an animal. The most amazing part is that each living being fulfills its daily purposes and functions because of it. Something extraordinary about the heart is how different it can be from one species to the next, but at the end of the day the heart is the root of any life. By looking at Doyle’s comparisons in the hearts of multiple species, we can see that each beings heart is a driving force and is so precious to life; this is important because life isn’t about just having a heart but how we choose to live and love with it. 

From the moment a reader’s eyes hit the page, the very first sentence of this passage immediately grabs their attention by making them think. Each continuing sentence draws the reader in deeper and deeper out of curiosity. Little details such as a hummingbird’s heart being the size of a pencil eraser, there being three hundred species and that they are considered a flying jewel. A humming bird can even “dive at sixty miles per hour. They can fly backwards…” however, “when they rest they come close to death” (Doyle 95). The hummingbird’s heartbeat is unlike any other, “beating ten times a second” (Doyle 94). If the hummingbird slows he will lose the precious item keeping him through this fragile thing we call life; he will lose his heart, his beat to life. This is the point where Doyle suddenly changes direction from a sense of fascination to a halting realization. This is the realization that life is delicate, a truly delicate gift. He continues his description of facts but they are no longer so lively. Then, Doyle states, “consider for a moment those hummingbirds who did not open their eyes again today” (Doyle 95). Consider yourself, a dear friend or family member not waking one day. Each one, just like the humming bird, amazing in different ways and suddenly “a brilliant music” is “stilled” (Doyle 95). Here Doyle shows just how quickly life can end and just how precious it is. 

The idea of not awaking one day makes the reader really consider what Doyle is saying about living every day, not just rolling through the motions but truly living. In this instance life can almost be compared to money. Money can go away just as fast as you receive it or it can be saved, similar to life in that you or another can be let go in any moment. This is where Doyle references the ways in which life is spent. He uses the tortoise in comparison to the hummingbird speaking of how slow and careful the tortoise lives compared to the fastness in which a hummingbird lives. He soon discovers the two ways a human can decide to live their life with approximately “two-billion heartbeats to spend” (Doyle 95). “You can spend them slowly, like a tortoise and live to be two hundred years old, or you can spend them fast, like a hummingbird, and live to be two years old.” You can easily spend your life trying to grow up and move on so fast that you miss what’s right there in front of you, or you can really live in every moment and see the journey. Doyle isn’t suggesting a right or wrong way to live, but it seems as though there is a best way; that is to enjoy it and see what’s really around.  

Sometimes what is on the surface doesn’t portray what is on the inside. In the two paragraphs before the last, Doyle really dives into what goes on inside of a living body. He describes the heart of a blue whale being “the biggest heart in the world” (Doyle 95). The blue whale’s heart is so large that a child could easily walk around in it. By describing the whales heart so strongly, Doyle creates such a vivid visualization for the reader to compare the size of a pencil eraser heart of the hummingbird to the house heart of a whale. This shows that each and every heart is important and gives everything life whether you are as small as a human ear or as long as one hundred feet. Doyle states that "there are perhaps ten thousand blue whales in the world, living in every ocean on earth, and of the largest mammal who ever lived we know nearly nothing. But we know the animals with the largest hearts in the world generally travel in pairs..." (Doyle 96). This is where Doyle’s idea of how one loves comes in; the blue whale is one that show’s how to love in life. By living together in a pair they truly love each other because they are beside each other every day. Love is a strong thing that many people are highly capable of sharing. It’s a powerful tool in life and a great quality to have. Everyone loves however it is dependent on how the individual chooses to use it. 

By comparison, many species have hearts. All of them are different and all of them function in different ways. This goes to show that the difference in hearts aren’t barriers for how a species chooses to live and love; each heart is unique, each life is unique and it is all precious. One of the last things Doyle states before concluding his piece is that "we all churn inside" (Doyle 274). So, yes each being may be different on the outside and a little on the inside but at the end of the day we all hold the same thing inside of us; we all hold a heart, our beating drum to life and we all possess the power to choose how we want to spend those beats. 

Ultimately, it is not just how we as a human, or animal in this instance, live and love but it is how we choose to do so. There is “so much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment” (Doyle 96). In his last few words, Doyle lists many situations that hold people back, cause them to stay sheltered, to be sad or even angry. “You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and impregnable as you possibly can” (Doyle 96) but it will come down. There are many things that will cause your wall to come down, its life. The most important thing Doyle can convey is for each person to choose the better way to live, to stop and look at everything before it’s gone and to appreciate the gift inside. Even in all of our differences, from the way each person or species looks, or acts and feels, each of us have something that is oh so important: our beating heart and the power to choose how we live. 



 