[I do not normally publish posts about my everyday life on this blog. This is my first attempt.]

Today I had the blood vessels in my left leg digitally mapped again. It is the oddest of things. You lie back in a comfy chair and watch the road atlas of your arteries and veins projected onto a high-definition color TV screen, as a doctor’s assistant taps data into a computer and another probes your groin with a blunt instrument lubricated with cool gel. It is almost fun.

Being able to watch—and even hear—your internal organs pumping away on an overhead TV screen while undergoing a minimally invasive procedure is certainly a calming, almost cathartic, experience. You are led through the winding paths of the cardiovascular forest of your physical inner self. And, when the doctor finally proclaims that everything inside you appears to be in order, you experience the same kind of relief that occurs when conflicts are implausibly resolved at the end of a naff sit-com.