Body Worlds Exhibit

December 29, 2008

I had the privilege of attending a most spectacular exhibition of real human bodies – bodies of deceased individuals that had undergone a process called “plastination”.

My brother, James, along with his wife and two of his daughters, picked me up at the airport Monday morning. We spent over 3 hours in the exhibit viewing every part of the body imaginable in intricate detail: the organs; the muscles; and the skeletal system. We saw healthy organs side by side enlarged, deformed and diseased ones, broken bones that had healed after being poorly set, the intricate network of arteries, blood vessels and capillaries that network our bodies, the array of nerves that extend from the spine and branch out to our extremities. It was simply amazing. The focus of this particular exhibit was on the heart, but truly every part of the body was displayed, dissected and discussed in detail. Even though I already had a deep respect and admiration for the complex, intricate design and mechanics of the human body, the exhibit provided even further evidence that out bodies are splendid creations of a brilliant Heavenly Father who loves us dearly. How wonderfully made each of us is. How priceless this gift – our earthly bodies.

A very poignant display was that of lungs ravaged by the effects of smoking. There was even a leg that had been amputated just below the knee because smoking had created a clot in the blood vessel that fed the leg, causing the leg to turn black and die.

The part of the exhibit that touched me most deeply was that of the embryos and developing fetuses. At only eight weeks gestation all the features of the body – right down to the individual fingers - could be seen in the tiny (and I mean, oh so tiny! – like 1.5 inches tiny) little developing baby. There were fetuses from nearly each week of gestation. Each little baby so perfect, so beautiful. It’s heart-wrenching that they did not get to experience the joy of living in this beautiful world, even for a short while.

Sadly, Ed could not join us because he had two DSC basketball games to announce tonight and there was not a flight with enough availability to assure us that he would make it home in time for the games. After hearing a few details about the exhibit, he assures me that it was best he did not attend after all. Filleted bodies make him a bit queasy, I believe. But, thankfully, they did not dull our appetites. After 3 or more hours of intense studying, we were starved! We headed out for Greek Gyros that were divine, then spent some time in a bookstore (I LOVE bookstores!) and paid a visit to a store called 10 Thousand Villages that had the most wonderful nativities and other goods available for purchase from Peru. My favorite were the fat little ceramic rams. All in all, a spectacular day.