The Human Body

It's an amazing thing, really. That we work theway we do. Humans carry one of the most efficient life systems in the world. We recycle our own blood every minute, and our heart pumps consistently for decades. Yesterday Boyfriend and I went to check out the Bodies: The Exhibition at South Street Seaport. I'm lucky that he has the foresight (sometimes) to get things in advance, so we didn't even have to wait in the line, which wasn't that bad when we went in, but was SO LONG when we came out. We went right in and started checking out organs and bodys that were preserved through Silicone Polymer, a different process than the general formaldehyde. The bodies are preserved, dehydrated in a vacuum, then prepared for dissection. You saw literally every blood vessel, every artery every MUSCLE you use. We saw hundreds of different diseases and cancers, and they even had a room dedicated to fetal development and problems. To say the least, I thought it was the most wonderful thing to finally see what happens inside when you have lung cancer or a stroke or are playing basketball or conducting a symphony. Seeing the muscles all working together like that really makes you consider how amazing the human form is. What also impressed me quite a bit was seeing how generous people were. These people gave their bodies to science. Instead of having a funeral or destroying or doing anything of that sort, they gave their bodies and trusted the scientists to preserve and display them in a respectful way. Which the curators of the exhibit did. It amazed me even more that people were willing to give their fetuses to the project. To lose a child halfway through pregnancy or conjoined twins and still have the insight to give them to be viewed and looked at as marvels seems to me to be the epitome of what being a mother is about. I hope that the people who suffered some of the horrific miscarriages or diseases went on to have healthy children because in my eyes they had an understanding of what it is to bring a human life into this world.

We don't think enough about what our body does, or how sensitive it is to environmental changes. Walking through and seeing diseases that had affected my family for years (particularly cancer and stroke) and seeing how that changed the way organs worked, seeing the spleen enlarged from mono (as mine was my freshman year of college), seeing the brain after a stroke, were all really wonderful things. Not that any of those happenings are good, but it makes a difference to see how it works and how you can prevent it. It was a great lesson for people who think they are immune to so much of this stuff. What also impressed me was how much beauty the inner body held. Who would have guessed that when your vessels and arteries are seperated from your body they look like coral? Everything brightly colored and connected to form a shape that only resembles what you are from the inside out. One room only held that and I loved it. It looked very much like art, like sculpture that happens to be in the shape of an organ. I also didn't realize where everything was located and how tiny some of the most important organs are. The uterus is even smaller than my fist, the stomach long and slim instead of short and round the way I expected it to be. The achilles tendon stretched further than I ever would have expected it too. I also developed a much more clear understanding of why our bones are so important, of why almost every vital organ is in the same place.

After going through the exhibit, We walked around the area a bit before heading allthe way to the other end of Fulton street and to Ground Zero. I hadn't been there yet, and truthfully that was the only AMerican tragedy I have ever been so affected by. Standing at the edge of this gaping whole, looking at the remains of what were the two tallest buildings in the city and for that matter two of the tallest in the country was another awe-inspiring experience. Considering how closely packed in things are that far downtown it is a miracle that anything survived the planes crashing into the buildings. I almsot cried again, remembering what it felt like to watch the first tower burn and then the scream that emitted from my lungs when another plane crashed into the second tower. I may as well have been there, shaking and crying because I knew, deep down that nothing would ever be the same. And it hasn't been. Everything is now about living in fear of what people who's faces we cannot identify may do to us or our country at any given point. And while my heart is overseas my body is here and I certainly don't want any more tragedy coming about because of the selfishness of humanity.

That was in itself another good reason to see all those bodies on display. Those people had given themselves up to be viewed and put on display all over the world. It just seems fitting to develop a better understanding of the life cycle so close to the site where so many lives were lost.