If I was a blue whale, my heart would be the size of a small car and weigh over 1500 pounds...

And I would probably still love you, with every square inch and every individual kilogram of that giant heart.

That's why they fascinate me. Not because of the size of the creature called balaenoptera musculus itself... but rather the size of its amazing heart. With an aorta large enough for an adult human to crawl through, pumping approx. 15,000 pints of blood—compared to the 8 or so pints in a human being (bare with me here, my knowledge is as extensive as the majority of the syllabus of CSEC Human and Social Biology, on a good day). 

A blue whale's heart beats about six or seven times a minute, while our human hearts beat about seventy times when resting—our healthy slowest, I believe. So for every sixty seconds, balaenoptera musculus's heart beats seven times. A beat every eight and a half seconds. 

Then I wonder things like: if blue whales feel things extraordinarily. I know certain emotions probably only affect humans a certain way, but I know animals have emotions not much unlike our own. They seem to display attachments, attractions, desires, weaknesses and even distinct personality traits amongst themselves... One of the most interesting things I've noticed about animals is the sense of belonging, and the need to feel such a sense of belonging. Aaaand if you've never heard, I have a fascination with loneliness. I've written about loneliness before, but I wonder... Do blue whales feel an extraordinary amount of loneliness? With a heart that big, I sure would. 

Then I think that maybe the blue whale probably feels a bigger heartful of love too; of feelings like contentment, satisfaction, appreciation, admiration and belonging even. Maybe it is a great burden but a greater blessing. 

Oh, to have a big heart. 

I wish I had more of a direction for this post, but it's been difficult to write anything at all... much less something with direction. 

I'd recommend Joshua Bennett's spoken word poem Balaenoptera by the way. It's on YouTube on the "Striver's Row" page, I will attempt to add a link on a non-mobile device later. It's not exactly related to this poem aside from the fact that the blue whale is the central metaphor. (Edit: LINK ADDED!)