In the flesh..

[baasheep]

I had such a fun day, a friend of a friend texted me inviting me to go to the bodies exhibition. I headed in to meet her encountering the latest protest along the way. The thing that struck me most about the exhibition was that although they are real human bodies how unsqeamish I was about it. It was presented in a easy to understand scientific way. The most disconcerting thing I found was that the flesh on the body reminded me a little too much of boiled ham in the colour and the fat perhaps due to the preserving process that is used. I don't think I will be able to look at that meat in the same way again!

Also important to me were the exhibits which showed samples of organs with cancer. It's hard to put into words and explain but I had this image in my mind of cancer. It's big and scary and horrible and even though I have googled cancer and seen images of it, seeing cancer in the flesh (literally) takes away some of the .... fear... I guess.. of it. There were cross sections of livers and lungs with cancer and it was just like I saw on my Mam's xrays, dark spots. A particularly effective exhibit was the one showing a smokers lungs compared to a non smokers lungs. I know there are some who read this who may smoke so I won't harp on about it. However beside the exhibit was a clear perspex box which encouraged people who may smoke to dispose of their cigarettes. It was half full. I saw a pancreas and was struck by how small it was. The pancreas is where my mam had her primary tumour and after seeing this small organ I was struck by how fine a balance our bodies need to maintain to stay healthy. My mams tumour was roughly an inch long. It's still hard for me to imagine something this small, this...insignificant in size is what made her so ill and ultimately led to her death. There were cancers of the penis, cancers of the trachea, all sorts of cancer and I think this was such an interesting thing to see, to take the fear out of it. I know some people may not agree but it helped me.

After the exhibition we went for food then to the movies. He's just not that into you. Surprisingly good. It didn't give the fairytale ending that I expect of movies like this but more like an ending which was right for each of the characters.

It was a fun day and I think I have me another single friend :)

Comments

[missalleysun.livejournal.com]

I've seen that Bodies exhibit when it came to the Science Center here. It was very cool and like you said - not as squeamish as you would think. I'd like to see it again if given the chance, now that the initial anxiety I had over it is gone. (I was SO nervous about the squick factor.)

I was amazed by the number of young children that went through the exhibit here. How about when you went through?

[crowjoy.livejournal.com]

We didn't get to see it when it was at the science center in Orlando because we couldn't sync up babysitting for it. I wondered if we should have just taken them, but they were only like 3 at the time.

[baasheep.livejournal.com]

Well the day we went it was super busy, then again it was the weekend. There were a lot of kids at it I think the youngest was about 2ish. It was cool though when I was looking at the reproductive organs there were two kids (5ish maybe) who's parent's were using it to explain a simplified version of the birds and the bees. I think it makes much easier for the parent's being able to point and read the explanations of the organs as the kids were asking questions.

[crowjoy.livejournal.com]

In my Day of Sofa yesterday we watched a program about Ireland and in the Dublin shots I kept imagining you. :) that was fun.

[aquestrian.livejournal.com]

You're brave. I can't go to that exhibit. It was playing in NY for forever, but I just couldn't get up the courage to go. It would totally make me squeamish.

[baasheep.livejournal.com]

I'm squeamish as well! I think I woulda had to run out of there if there had of been any bloodiness. Like I said the looking like boiled ham thing squicked me out a little and there was a seperate exhibit of fetuses but that was off the main hall and had warnings up telling people what they were about to enter. I thought that was pretty thoughtful. Although they were real bodies they did have a wax work quality to them..

[sprouterific.livejournal.com]

I saw it last slummer, and I'm taking my students to see it next month. I thought the fetuses were incredibly interesting, sad, and wonderful all at once. I heard there was part of the exhibit of a man with layers of fat, but that wasn't part of the one I saw. This one next month has a focus on the brain, which should be cool.