The Body Internal

Over the last few months, the house hunk and I have had occasion to spend quite a few hours submitting to medical tests. Strange tests with weird names. Some require drinking nasty tasting goop. Some require purging. Or the injection of dyes.

It's amazing how much information such tests can yield. Whereas in days gone by exploratory surgery might be required, now doctors and technicians peer through technological windows to see the inner workings of our bodies.

Surgeries are scheduled, or not, based on the results. Though the tests are expensive (and boy, how expensive!), they aren't nearly as expensive--or dangerous--as surgery and anesthesia.

For all our modern tests, knowledge of the body internal is not new. The ancient Sumerians had doctors. While we might rely on modern chemical compounds and computer technology now, many of the conditions we suffer were known and diagnosed in ancient times.

What does that say about modern man? Something, some part of how we choose to live hasn't changed in two or three thousand years. If allowed the choice, we still drink too much, eat too much of the wrong foods, and live a couch potato life. We stay up too late at night. Have sex with the wrong partners. Live with high stress.

In our modern lives we've traded old stresses for new stresses, and old wars for new wars, but not much else has changed. Over the years, there have been utopian experiments, groups who tried new life styles, yet there've been no notable successes.

I suspect it all boils down to being human. We're imperfect, warlike, and indolent when possible. Oh, I know there are Type A personalities who can't seem to relax. And we have our share of humans who strive for peace. But when the chips are down...when the thin veneer of civilization is stripped away, we revert to the basic model.

Survival comes first.

anny