"Our Body" Exhibit

We got up very early this morning, in order to be ready to get on the road south to visit an "Our Body" exhibit. We wanted to be at the museum by the time it opened at 10 a.m., and we were. This despite the fact that Hubbie decided to choose a new route that he was convinced would shave off time, bypass the city, and take us directly to the museum. It didn't quite work out that way, because somehow we missed a turn or an exit or something, and ended up going through the city after all.

We got to the museum about the same time a couple of school buses arrived, disgorging noisy, pushing and shoving, groups of children of junior high and high school age. Fortunately, the kids pleasantly greeted Mother, and gave her a wide berth when they saw she used a cane and held my hand for support.

However, we had to wait a few minutes to get into the exhibit area until the school group went in, so we wouldn't be stumbling over each other at the individual displays. I overheard some students remark upon entering that they thought the exhibit would be "gross," because it uses actual human bodies. Later, I heard one student remark, "It's amazing how all of our body parts work together."

The exhibit does use actual human bodies (from China), dissected to show skin, muscles, tendons, networks of nerves, blood vessels, and even reproductive organs. But all of this is done very respectfully, and with a reverence for the dignity of the human subjects. There are whole bodies, posed to show how muscles, etc., work, as well as display cases of individual body parts, like hands, feet, brains, and internal organs. Some specimens include teeth, eyelashes, and toenails. The bodies are specially preserved through a process called "plastination," so that they are odorless and very durable.


When I first mentioned going to see the exhibit, Mother and Hubbie were uncertain that they wanted to go. But after we got there, all three of us became absorbed in the wonder of how our bodies function...how delicate and fragile, yet amazingly resilient our systems are. Especially amazing are the displays of networks of nerves and blood vessels. We are truly a wonder of creation.

We chose a great day to go to the exhibit, because it was overcast and relatively cool, so Shih Tzu was comfortable in the van. It was also a nice day to enjoy our lunch at one of the picnic tables on the museum grounds.

The trip down and back was pleasant. We avoided morning traffic using a bypass around the capital city on our way to the museum city, and we were on the way back home before after-work traffic set in.

During our trip, we listened to a book on CD titled "Total Recall," a suspense novel by Sara Paretsky.