




In “Joyas Volardores” Brian Doyle says, “So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour; a moment”(96). One’s life may be a day, two years, or even one hundred years, but it is more about what that person makes of their lifetime that matters. For example, the hummingbird in “Joyas Volardores” differs from the blue whale in how it lives and how long it lives, but in the end it only matters how they face life. The hummingbird and the whale are a symbol of human beings and how they use their time. Some people live their lives fast, always trying to get to the next phase of their lives and others go through life slow enjoying what is thrown at them, both trying to get through hard times. Everyone has a different perspective on life, but we always need to remember how valuable life really is because in the end, all we have is experiences from our lives. These experiences can be anything from your first love, heart break, and more. We all undergo some form of pain in our lives and it would be sad if someone tried protecting themselves from not experiencing life completely just because of some pain that comes along with the happy times in life. In “Joyas Volardores” by Brian Doyle, readers can look at how the hummingbird and whale lead two very different lives; they reflect on us as humans and how some of us use our time constantly moving on to the next thing and how others relish in the moment. Either way people can have a full life; they just need to make the most of every experience and keep on moving even when times are tough.

The hummingbird and the whale are two very different types of animals in size, color, life spans, and more. The hummingbird has a heart the size of a “pencil eraser” and it is a big percentage of the hummingbird (94). The short essay says that even though human ears are big in comparison to their hearts, we still could not hear the hummingbirds heart because of how fast it is going. Doyle tells us how they go to thousands of different flowers each day and how they have the talents of being able to fly backwards, being able to dive at an amazing speed of 60 miles per hour, and fly five hundred miles a day without stopping. Sadly, when they do take a break they can die: when it is cold or when they are hungry, their heart rates slow down, and if they do not build up enough warmth, their short life will be brought to an end. Hummingbirds also have a very high metabolism and fast hearts that use up oxygen very fast. They live life “close to death, experience the most heart attacks of any animals”, and only live about two years (95). The hummingbird has a short time to experience as much as it can.

 On the other hand the blue whales live around two hundred years and have ample time to experience as much as it can. They have the most enormous heart on earth, the heart weighs about 4,000 pounds and a child could literally walk through it like their bedroom. The valves of the blue whale’s heart are like “swinging door of a saloon”. This heart keeps an animal alive that is about 100 feet long. After the whales go through puberty we do not know much about the blue whales from their social lives, dieting, stories, and more. But we do know that the “animals with the largest hearts in the world generally travel in pairs, and their penetrating moaning cries, their piercing yearning tongue, can be heard underwater for miles and miles” (95). The whales love its family and enjoy every phase of life with them. As we can see, the hummingbird and the whale lead two very different types of lives, much like how human beings differ in the way they live out their lives.

After reading the story, we can tell that Doyle is not only describing the hearts of these animals, he is actually reflecting on how people take different paths in life as well. For example, the hummingbird represents a fast paced life. The person that acts like a hummingbird is someone always trying to get to the next phase in life before the one they are in is over or they could be someone always looking for a new adventure. They visit so many flowers in their lifetime and move on quickly like the hummingbird. These people have so much life in them, but yet are so close to death. They are constantly moving, doing, and letting their hearts lead them to new experiences. This can really wear a person down like it does the hummingbird. Furthermore, everyone has approximately two million heart beats and the hummingbird chooses to use them up quickly, like humans who choose to live so fast that their lives are coming to an end before they realize it. On the contrary, the blue whales represent a slow paced life.  These people like the whale enjoy every stage of life they are in and do not try to move on so fast, like how the blue whale take seven to eight years to hit puberty and stays with its mom up until that point (95).  These people usually have a pack of people they live life with and love, usually either a family or group of friends, just like the blue whales.  The whales choose to use their two million heart beats slowly, like humans that live in the moment, enjoying every second. Everyone is different in how they choose to experience life and neither way is wrong.

People have so many experiences in a life time and everyone looks at them differently, but it is more about how we get through them and value them. Doyle says, “We all churn inside” (96). This means that everyone’s heart is susceptible to some kind of pain in their lives. Doyle says, “Perhaps we could not bear to be so naked, for fear of a constantly harrowed heart” (96) This shows that some people will not get the full experience of life because they are constantly scared someone will hurt their fragile heart. The heart is the one thing that keeps a human alive, but it can also kill them; this means that every person needs to make the most of every second because they do not know what the next day holds. For example, the hummingbird has such a fast heart to keep up with its constant movement, but this constant movement could also cause a heart attack, taking its life too soon. So instead of “bricking up our hearts” we should let our hearts experience heart break and pain because it is a part of life (96).  Plus, we will regret in the end not giving ourselves the chance to live life to the fullest because all we have is experience. Even though life can be tough and someone may never be the same from a bad experience, time helps repair a shattered heart.  They need to keep moving on even when they are having a rough patch in life because life is valuable. Life is not just all about getting through the rough times because there are also enjoyable amazing times in life too. Doyle gives some examples of the good times, “the brush of your mother’s papery ancient hand in the thicket of your hair, the memory of your father’s voice early in the morning echoing from the kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children”(96). If we “brick up our hearts” we will not be able to experience these good times either (96).So humans need to remember no matter what to keep their hearts open to experience because a little bit of grief is nothing compared to all the good aspects of life like family, friends, love, and more. People need to remember time is also valuable. People can either be like the humming bird constantly using up their time by always finding something new to do or people can be like the whale and be content with the period in life they are now. Everyone has different ways of doing life, but it is more important to cherish and understand how precious every moment in life is important.

 As we can see people can have a full life even if it is two or two hundred years and they may go at different paces like the hummingbird and the blue whale, but they just have to remember to make the most of every opportunity. The hummingbird and blue whale differ in so many ways from how long they live, how they socialize, how they move through each phase of life, and more. Nonetheless, the hummingbird and the blue whale are a metaphor of the two different ways human beings spend their time alive. Some, like the hummingbird, move so quickly through life that death is near before they know it and others, like the blue whale, try to enjoy everything from the smallest importance to the largest importance.  Neither way is wrong, individuals just need to remember to enjoy the time they have and make the most of every “flower” they visit or their time spent with their mom (95). Nothing should hold us back from experiencing life fully, not even when something so awful happens like when our hearts break. Even if our hearts break, we can still experience it profoundly, so do not hinder yourself from experiencing because of an difficult incident. Eventually, we will be restored and still be able to make amazing precious memories. The good always outweighs the bad and there will be bad times, but we just have to push through them to get the full experience of life. Abraham Lincoln once said, “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years” (Quote Investigator). Spending time constantly afraid of what could hurt you is no way to live; we need to remember time is irreplaceable. This means there is no way to replace the experiences you could have had. Finally, people should allow their hearts to encounter every experience that comes their way to have a full life.



