This red stuff inside

I donated blood today... it's such a strange thing, to give your blood. The single most important thing in your entire body... the thing that keeps you alive, that heals you, makes you grow, protects your body.... to give it away... no money exchanged, no prizes awarded, no parade or portrait on a wall in some office with a brass plate hanging below stating "A Hero"... just saying, "Yep, here you go!"... I've never really thought about it before. I mean, it's the most valuable commodity on the planet... no value could possibly be placed on it... and here I am, just giving it away without a second thought. Yet I do it. No questions asked. It's what I've done for years except when I've gotten tattoos. Why wouldn't I. I'm making plenty of it right? And someone else out there is no doubt losing it... accidents, shootings, surgeries, transplants... cancer...... They say that one donation could save up to three lives.....THREE...just from one pint of blood. In my lifetime I could have possibly saved 60 people.....60 peoples lives could have been saved by me up to this point....add to that the fact that less than 6% of the world's population have my blood type (A-) and it makes it even more important! It's a great thing to think that I have, running through my body, a commodity, that saves lives...that allows people to live. It's a humbling thought...even more so when I think on the flip side that if something ever happened to me...that only two blood types would be able to save me... and combined, they make up barely 12% of the Earth's population...that means that I'd have roughly a 1 in 9 chance of finding a compatible donor if I needed blood... very humbling indeed.... I could sit here and spit numbers all night... but I won't... I donate because I like to think that maybe I save someone's grandmother... or sister... or father... their brother... their newborn who needed surgery out of the womb... maybe gave a few more years for their mother with cancer so she could see her grandson if for only a few weeks... that's why I donate... because I know that I helped someone to live.... and I will give that freely every time I can...