Saturday, March 4: The skeleton

THE IMPORTANCE OF A SKELETON
If we didn’t have a skeleton we’d be a blob on the ground or some sort of wormlike creature. This would be fine if we didn’t want to work in gardens or go swimming or play the violin or read a book, but otherwise might be kind of limiting. The skeleton is hard, and alive and it has a job, a simple job, a wonderful job: to support our bodies in gravity.

The skeleton holds us up, it pushes against gravity and hold us our head so we can look around and see where the beautiful flowers are and where the food is and where a sweet mate. The head is held up high so we can look around and discover the next thing to do. The head is held high so we can hear what’s coming, or what’s pleasant, or what’s worth hearing. Now the ears are for cell phones and i pods, but they can also be used in old fashioned ways, like listening to the wind, or to another person speaking to us, or music that isn’t recorded, just old fashioned instruments and singing with real people attached to them. What a concept.

The skeleton holds up the head, there’s a brain in there, the brain has a job: use the muscles to make the skeleton as easy as possible in gravity and move this bag of bones and blood and brains from one place to another. The brain loves to learn, an easier way to move, a different way to make a meal, a new tune to hum or sing. This brain is protected in the skeleton, and held up high, which might not be a good idea, since the brain is so valuable it might better be hidden, but it is so closely connected to the eyes and to our orientation that that’s where it is, up top.

High up the eyes and the nose and the mouth and the ears and the brain, held up by the skeleton moved by the muscles, and balanced on the feet, with their ten toes. It’s a lot of us that goes into even the simplest things we do. Getting up from a chair, walking across the room, walking out the door, looking up into the blue beautiful sky. Lot’s of life available from this way that we are put together. Let’s learn about and enjoy it, eh?