‽istis wonders at bodies miraculous (weekending March 18th
2023)
This weekending as a seemingly ‘significant’ birthday approaches[i]
and a conversation with health care staff is also had, ‽istis
wonders at bodies miraculous: what is going on for most of us most of the
time, and why more does not go wrong for most of us more often…
As is so often the case ‽istis’ wonderings
and ponderings include some t’interweb searching. Dipping a toe into the open
waters (perhaps sometimes shallow, possibly sometimes untested and unverified
for quality, maybe sometimes dark, deep, dangerous and uncharted) of
information that can be found a click or two away, at least in this
part of the world.
Typing in ‘What is going on in
your body every second?’ the hidden algorithms worked their magic, sending and
receiving electrical messages, coursing virtual synapses? and these two –
perhaps the fittest[ii]
surviving – emerged:
1)
What goes on in your body – ‘mind-blowing facts’[iii] including:
Fact No. 1: Your gut is the only organ
with its own independent nervous system.
Fact No. 2: Your veins,
capillaries and arteries would stretch for more than 60,000 miles if laid out
flat.
Fact No. 3: You lose 200 million
skin cells every hour, and these dead skin cells can actually decrease air
pollution; etc.
And while it was difficult to find
out about the cost of care, diagnosis and treatment in Oklahoma[iv]
from the source of this information, ‘Integris Health’, the following was
noted: ‘Financial Assistance may be available to patients who do not qualify
for state or federal assistance with the INTEGRIS Health Help.’
And perhaps it is a good job that more
does not go wrong for more of us more often in some countries and under some
health services and health funding systems. In a week when talks seems to be
the oh so obvious way to potentially reach settlements in disputes with some of
the UK’s most essential workers, ‽istis gives thanks for what seems such a precious
mantra ‘free at the point of delivery’.
2)
Your body, every second[v]: a curiously stark
webpage with twelve ‘panes’ of rolling numbers accumulating over the time it is
open, with a curious ‘quiz’ invitation to find the answer to the question: ‘Am
I an Emo?’[vi], with curious ‘You
might like’ clickable links to ‘Apple’ and ‘The Internet’. And while the spinning
numbers whizzed ever upwards ‽istis did think more
about what was going on inside our bodies, every second:
·
the number of skin cells shed
·
the mls of blood being pumped by the heart and
filtered by the kidneys
·
the micrometers of hair growth, the milileters of
saliva being produced
·
the numbers of red blood cells being produced, of
white blood cells being produced
·
the number of neurons firing in the brain and the
joules of energy the brain was usuign
·
the number of DNA mutations
·
the bits of visual data being received and processed
·
the number of heartbeats…
though ‽istis’ breath was held
when the latter just stopped accumulating, stuck at 155 while the others
continued – and then showed just 210 beats after the webpage had been opened
for 9 minutes 50 seconds‽
With plenty more websites and
references to intrigue and amaze, the weekending deadline left further
explorations for another time.
Yet ‽istis wonder-ed… the system
complexity; the beating drive and co-ordinated effort to sustain life; the
capacity for resilience in stressed conditions; the unconscious-self-management
adaptability; the so much taken for granted and undervalued (until perhaps
faced with a loss of health or capacity); the precious sacredness of life and living
things; the every second miracle.
And ‽istis pondered further – what
just perhaps, possibly, maybe the potential impact if more of us remembered more
of this more often, and valued and held up ourselves and each other as inherently
sacred and precious‽
And ‽istis gives thanks for those
who care…
© ‽istis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and
past blog entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t
necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’:
@Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...
[i]
One of those that has a nought at the end and one of those where gratitude and
amazement is perhaps a more firring response than wild and wanton celebration!
[ii]
Where ‘fittest’ is defined by ranking on a search engine with the
well-resourced probably being those most likely to win out just about every
time
[iii] https://integrisok.com/resources/on-your-health/2021/january/facts-about-the-human-body-you-never-knew
[iv] A
state that, it has been suggested, is: ‘gonna treat you great!
Gonna give you barley, carrots and pertaters,
Pasture fer the cattle, Spinach and Termayters!
Flowers on the prairie where the June bugs zoom,
Plen'y of air and plen'y of room,
Plen'y of room to swing a rope!
Plen'y of heart and plen'y of hope!’ (from lyrics on
‘Oklahoma’ thank you Messrs Rodgers and Hammerstein
[vi] ‽istis
was not curious enough to follow the link, sorry…
