[lit-ideas] Senior Citizenship
- From: Mike Geary <jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:06:45 -0600
Two weeks ago I was officially confirmed as a Senior Citizen. I had one of
my coronary veins rotorootered and a stent implanted. It may or may not
come as a surprise that I am a hater of hospitals and all things requiring
me to relinquish any control over my precious body. Nevertheless, I did.
It was a thoroughly demeaning and unpleasant experience except for one
procedure. An intern or technician wheeled a TV type monitor into my room.
He gelled up a sonagram type probe and started rubbing it on my chest. It
was a Doppler Sonograph machine. I had a good view of the screen. It was
fascinating. I could see inside my heart, watch it pulse, watch the valves
open and close and sometimes the tech would hit a button and with the
opening of a valve there would be a burst of colors like fireworks: red,
blue, splotches of yellow, specks of orange -- amazing. Everything was in
constant motion. I already knew that -- intellectually, I did. But here it
was in fact. It didn't seem at all the set and orderly place I had
imagined. More like a water filled balloon -- all in wave motion. It
struck me then that all my insides were a beehive of motion, more lively
than my outside. And not just my heart -- all the surrounding tissues, and
organs, even the bones in their marrow were dancing around all the time.
There's no such thing as solid flesh, much less "too, too solid
flesh".Everything that is is in motion all the time. I knew that. Of
course I did. Even rocks. Had we the eyes we would see them constantly
spitting out muons and pions and grabbing hold of hadrons, sucking in
electromagnetic radiation, flinging whole molecules riotously to the wind.
Yes, not a minute's rest. Even in death we are a whirlwind of motion for
years and years and years until the very last sub atomic particle zips away.
Mike Geary
moving around merrily n Memphis
Other related posts:
