Body Worlds

Today, I made one of my rare trips into the city. Actually, I went into the city twice in one weekend. On Saturday night, I went to the Chicago Auto Show to look at all the shiny cars, ooh and ahh over the exciting concept cars (I thought that the best one was the Jeep Trailhawk), and sit in the ones that I can only currently dream of affording.

So, in one day I went from looking a gleaming hunks on metal to gazing upon plasticized human bodies. I went to the Body Worlds 2 exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. I would have to sum up the experience as morbidly fascinating.

I was a bit unnerved going to look at a bunch of real human bodies in a museum. I thought it would be gross and creepy. In reality, it wasn't that bad. Given that the bodies had been injected with plastic and hardened they didn't have the glossiness of a body that I would have expected. Instead, as my date said, the bodies made her think of beef jerky.

It was a bit fascinating at seeing all the nerve endings and organs and such. I did however approach the portion of the exhibit with the circulatory system with some trepidation. I was fearing that I would find myself looking at an example of an aortic dissection. It still bothers me to think that it happened to me. Even running across an old episode of Three's Company on the television gives me a start, knowing that John Ritter died from an aortic dissection. Although looking at the hearts did cause an acceleration of mine, I was relieved not to see an example.

Some of the poses, such as the yoga woman and an ice-skating pair, highlighted the grace and fluidity of which the human body is capable. A couple of the poses seemed a little more shocking to me. Still, overall I found the exhibit to be very respectful of the bodies. In one room, there were several fetuses at various stages of development. It was somewhat sad to look at the bodies of people who never were. These tiny, precious bodies were supposed to become lives well spent, but it didn't happen. It did not seem like some sort of macabre nursery, but instead the bodies were gently placed on black cloths that seemed to nestle and swaddle the child. The only disrespect seemed to come from a woman looking at an embryo and commenting that she was amazed that there was so much political and religious fighting over something that looked like a booger.

The whole time I was in the exhibit, I kept wondering who these people were. What was their life stor? Where did they live? How did they die? Was it peaceful? Was it tragic? Do their families still mourn and miss them? Still seeing the human body in that form, stripped of the skin and reduced to an anatomical display really drove home the fact that our bodies aren't us. I felt no trace of the people who used to inhabit these bodies. Their souls were longer housed in those corporeal forms. I suppose many people could have a nihilistic approach to it and offer it as proof that when we die, that's it, lights out. I on the other hand, felt the other way around.