"Does this monkey have vertebrae?" Yes. "What about T-Rex?" Mmhmm! "And how about Bacon the cat?" He sure does. Did you know you also have vertebrae, Shane? — The toddler's eyes grew wide as he held out his arms in front of himself, for the first time aware of his own skeleton, even though his interest was sparked by a to cage at-shirt my friend gave him for Halloween.
After she told me the cute story, I couldn't help but feel my own body, the miracle that is my skeleton, and life suddenly seemed so much less straight forward, such an elusive concept. How do we make ourselfs move about in this world, controlling our beautiful skeletons with thoughts and dreams? I thought about food and health and the body's insistance on living even in the worst health, and how sometimes we just lose all control and the machine breaks down.
Life is such an odd, beautiful thing. We breathe, we love, we dream, and in between we are consistently alive, for some incredible reason, with complete control over the body, except when it controls us.
As the New Year approaches, be kind to your one miraculous body. Love your aches and pains and weaknesses, love your fat and clumsiness, love each precious breathe you've somehow figured out how to take and process, you incredible living genius organism.
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