A few years ago I went to an otolaryngologist (that is, a doctor who specializes in the ear, nose, and throat) about a variety of health concerns. Among the concerns I went to check was something that I have had to deal with as long as I can remember, the problem of a bloody nose. Given that it appears to be a genetic problem, running in my mother’s side of the family, it has long been a source of embarrassment and concern. On days like today when I can feel the blood pulsing through my fingers and head, though, I suppose it’s not too bad to have a safety valve in the head that can keep the blood pressure down, given the fact that I live a stressful life and have a family history that is not conducive to confidence about such matters for the long haul. A bloody nose is better, sometimes, than the alternative.

In life, we as individuals and larger groups of people need a safety valve to keep the pressure in our lives from overwhelming us. Human beings and systems can only handle so much pressure, and given that some of us are already under a higher level of existential pressure and stress than others, some people just can’t hold very much in. I suppose it is altogether appropriate that I would be someone who was unusually sensitive to such issues, and therefore highly attuned to my internal health and external environment. My desire to avoid acting out on those who do not deserve to suffer any volcanic blasts of anger such as are all too common tends to mean that I require some safety valves regarding conversation as well as writing, in order to reduce internal pressures to an acceptable level, even if writing has the downside of being evidence of the seriousness of concerns that one has to deal with.

There are only a few options that we have with regards to dealing with the stresses of life. I have lived enough places and long enough to realize that a quiet and simple life without much stress is probably not in the cards. For reasons of my own personal background, I tend to be a person of fairly high anxiety and nerves to begin with, aside from any sort of external pressures. Of course, in such a dangerous world as we live in, the threats that we and others face are going to add a lot more pressure on all lives, and most of us are not always very understanding of the pressures that others are under, and their own need for a safety valve to remove the stress in their own life, so that they can avoid taking it out on ourselves, themselves, or others. If we all realized our shared vulnerability to such matters, we might help to create less stressful contexts of communication for others, which might help us out as well. Such things might make nosebleeds less frequent, and less necessary.