It’s the end of term and I’m doing a lot of reflection essays and papers and responses.

So I’m going to use this time to take a break from doing formal reflections and I’m going to informally look back on the body and the assignment and put my thought stream into a post (thought streams are actually really interesting, when you think about it). It’s going to be disjointed and fairly random, but that’s my mind for you.

Fair warning.

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When I decide that I need or want to create a post, I mull topics over, often think of a line I’ll want to have as a title or somewhere in the post. Today, I only came upon the following thought:

We put our bodies through so much abuse.

Holy cow. Never mind the psychological abuse of thinking thoughts we don’t want or recalling embarrassing moments over and over in slow mo as you go to bed (don’t tell me that your mind isn’t part of your body) and you can ignore the nourishment (or lack thereof during finals week) that we consume.  I’m talking about physical wear-and-tear.

Here’s a small list, as an example:
– Walking into things (walls, doors, buildings, tables etc…)
– Extreme temperatures
– Exhausting hours (I don’t think I’ve been to bed before 3am in over a week)
– Pushing yourself in ways such as being on your feet for too long.
– Sidenote: After I fractured my knees back in high school, running damages my knees even more since I scoffed off physical therapy at the time. So running and walking? Simple acts ruin my cartilage.
– Strain such as being at the computer too long or watching too much TV
– Apparently sitting all day is bad for your health.
– By my guessimation, this eliminates 95% of the job market.

It’s intense.

But here’s the thing. Physical therapy and prepping your body by exercise and training can only do so much.

Bodies get broken. Just like everything else. Humans like to think of them as impervious to damage, to injury. Why do we think that? We see it every day. After all, it takes less than a pound of pressure to cut skin, to draw blood. And sure, I took that quote from Firefly, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Well, I don’t actually know. I didn’t fact check that. But I’m going to continue my way of believing in Joss on this one.

We are insanely fragile creatures, getting injured and damaged every day… why do we make such a big deal out of those who are already broken, or who break?

Today it was raining. It was cold. I wasn’t supposed to be on campus and I wanted to be no where else but in my apartment sitting on my bed doing work. Instead I put on pants to go down to the commons and to my office to meet with some students who I TA for. As I walked across the quad, I heard my name being called. It was a friend, currently wearing a leg brace. One of these obnoxious things:

I personally hate these things. Never had to wear one, myself. But I know plenty of people who have.

They needed help adjusting it, but holding an umbrella while walk-limping across the quad in the rain isn’t exactly prime time for them to stop. So they asked me. No problem, no worries. I got down on one knee, all propose style, and fixed it for them. Why shouldn’t I? Okay, yeah, the rain, cold and students waiting for me three buildings away. But why wouldn’t I? Why couldn’t I?

But either way. As I adjusted the weirdo mechanism forcing their leg in place, people passed us by as they do. I saw two people give me a weird look. I don’t know. Maybe it was because we were in the rain and my knee was in a puddle and I was adjusting a leg brace. Or I could see it in the more probable explanation- they were wondering what I was doing and what happened to the person. Maybe I’m a pessimist (although I’ll admit it) and I’m viewing it that way. But I wouldn’t doubt it.

We’ve all been broken and we’ve all helped those who are broken. Whether they are born broken or not. We’re so easy to break, it’s not surprising when we do fall apart. And this is just the physical aspect. If we dive into the full spectrum…

It’s almost impressive that we’re even alive and “whole” at any point in time. Even if we think we are, we’re on an endless track to destruction. Every minute of every day we crack more and more. Those thinking otherwise are just fooling themselves.

We’re never whole.

We’re always broken.

Some of us just have bigger displays.