How Often Do You Take a P&J Temp?

 Take My Temperature…Please?

So…this morning I realized that no one had taken my temperature for a couple weeks now.  If you don’t visit any health clinics or have medical appointments you probably aren’t getting swiped across the forehead multiple times a day anymore.  However, did we ever stop and think about the health technology that allowed us to figure out one of the suspected COVID symptoms instantly.  However, pre-COVID how often did IU have a thermometer placed under my tongue or in my ear?  Not all that often.  Does anyone wonder how it works out the same regardless of if it’s a swipe on your head, a slip under the tongue, a poke in the ear or well a poke in something that rhymes with ear and grass.  (Gross Humor Warning).  So what’s the difference between an oral and a rectal thermometer?  —according to Rodney Dangerfield—the taste). ..  Anyway… back to Peace and Joy of this….

Most of us are familiar with the Fahrenheit scale and Captain Obvious  tells us that his 98.6 for normal scale comes from his thermometer.  Now he originally designed the thermometer so that 100 would be “normal…but he didn’t get it exactly right.  His scale was crystallized in 1724 and his basic design was finalized about ten years prior.  Now others had devised thermometers.  For example Galileo (yes that Galileo ) had designed a thermometer and if he’d stuck to that he might not have argued with the Pope about the planets and well we know how that turned out.  

Well here’s the deal…. Thanks to this thermometer we have this term normal temperature.  However, we pretty much don’t care to take a our temperature  except for when we aren’t feeling well or somebody else wants to find out if we’re normal.  But what if….. we took our peace and joy temperature?   What?  I mean what if we stopped to check out our relationship statuses, our connections with relatives and friends, our basic anxiety levels and things when things were going well or just going “normally.”  Why is it that we often don’t focus attention on peace and joy things  except when there’s a problem…when we’re feeling “sick” or broken?  Where  do we have our attention when we are “happy” or satisfied?  What is our emotional temperature then?   How often are we reaching out to others on a scale of 0 to 100?  Just like  in the past couple years when we were hunting for COVID maybe we should start scanning our spiritual temperature when things are good, neutral, and not so hot.  Maybe we should develop a thermometer of our own and stick it anyplace we need  to inorder to keep learning how and when action is needed in the seeking of peace and/or joy?  

In short, a thermometer (which we see so often these days) puts our attention on something that reflects our health…. Or so they say…. Perhaps if we give our present state  some attention on a regular basis we can build a Peace and Joy thermometer to make this journey either alone or with others a healthier and wiser  experience.  Open Wide.