Back in the year 2000, I did something really foolish. I happened upon some neighborhood children who were contemplating how they would get a ball down from a flat-topped roof. Feeling like a Good Samaritan, I told the kids to sit tight while I used the hood of my truck to get to the top of the roof and retrieve the ball. Moments later, I watched the kids go running off happily with their ball and came upon the sobering realization that I had no easy way to get back down from the roof. If I’d jumped back on to the hood of my truck, I was afraid my overweight body would put a big dent in it (oh no – not a dent in my truck).
So what did I do? You guessed it; I made a ten-foot jump to the ground. Why not; I’d never broken a bone in my body. I’d made similar jumps to the ground in my twenties. And who knew there was uneven ground beneath the weeds that covered my landing target?
Well, that little drop with a bad landing caused a nice chunk of bone to get separated from my Talus. After a week of my foot being elevated while denying that I’d broken it, I finally conceded to having it X-rayed and – Surprise; it was broken. The weeks and months that followed were predictable; surgery to re-attach the bone, debilitation, recuperation, physical therapy.
Fast-forward almost seven years. I’m standing in a quaintly lit room looking at the bones of a skeleton that belonged to a living person. I’m staring, somewhat in awe, as I fully realize which bone I’d broken seven years ago and just how it happened. It finally became apparent why the orthopedic surgeons entered and dug into my foot tissue from the strange angle that they had.
I’d enter ed ‘Bodies: The Exhibition’ in NYC without even realizing that I would be looking at actual cadavers. I wasn’t aware of the controversy. I didn’t have any preconceived notions. I just felt amazed at… well, the amazing complexity of the human body. Not that I’d never seen pictures and MRI scans and all of that. But this display of the body was, at least for me, incredibly more impactful than any of those.
What struck me as more captivating than any other display was the nervous system. Upon seeing it, I thought about the works I’d referenced in my book which claim that neurotransmitters bathe every cell of the human body. This becomes evident upon viewing the inextricable intertwining of bodily systems in a presentation of such starkness. The cells comprising the nervous system, muscles, blood vessels – It’s all so plainly intermeshed. The mind/muscle connection I describe in my book was laid bare to see.
When I left that exhibit, I had more respect for my body than ever.
I’d hate to find out that the source of those bodies was something as sinister as some have suggested. But let me tell you; if I could know that when I leave this life my body could be helping the living respect theirs and lead a healthier life, I’d opt for that over having it disintegrate in the ground.
I would love to know if any of my blog readers have visited ‘Bodies: The Exhibition’. If so, what was your take on it? Did you think it was merely a “freak show”, as is the opinion of some? Or did it leave you with an indelible new respect for that miraculous piece of machinery that comprises your physical being?
