Life by the numbers

Blood Pressure: 130/80
Pulse: 72
Percentage Red Blood Cell by Volume: 46%

In an attempt to level my karmic playing field, I gave up a pint of blood. It's been 20 years since I've done something like this. The world has changed so much. They test for everything now, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B & C, West Nile Virus, malaria, and whole bunch of others I never heard. By the time I finished all the forms and waivers, I didn't know what I might have.

In the end it's all about the blood...

In the distant past it was blood sacrifices that made atonement. Blood was used to seal pacts, deals, families and oaths. Then Christ came and it is his blood that does the atonement.

We have ties of blood for family and our flag. It is the one liquid that can universally identified in every culture.

Two thousand years later it's still all about the blood. The deadly diseases we all fear the most are about the blood and the organs dealing with blood: AIDS/HIV, diabetes, Leukemia, High blood pressure, Heart Attack, High cholesterol, and all the new viruses that now thrive in the human blood system.

The attendant said my blood would go toward helping two people. It would be spilt Platelets and Red Blood cells. I hope so.

As for balancing my karma, they gave me a t-shirt, a Nutrigrain bar, some V-8, and a bottle of water.