The Human Body Is a University of Life

The Latin word “corpus” is another root word for body. Corporate entities of many types are bodies whose functions mirror and mimic the human body. I find this a fascinating topic.

I was reminded sitting in the hospital bed with my renal calculus and colic (kidney stone pain), how many things my amazing body was doing in that moment working together to give me health, well being, and keep me alive.  My brain and various components of my nervous wiring and communication system immediately started getting signals from various sectors and parts of the body. There was a problem going on in with the kidneys.

D – activating vitamin D

When a 9mm size piece of rock formed due to my water balance (dehydration) not having enough fluid to keep solid wastes in solution, and the acid-base balance was thrown off because of not enough solution, salts started crystallising rather then staying in water solution. Think of it like a river and there being no rain. Everything starts drying up and turning hard.

When my right kidney was doing it’s waste and toxin removal, a pipe outside of the treatment plant heading to a treated waste holding tank got blocked by sediment building up due to not enough water carrying away the waste that had been filtered out of the blood.

As soon as this started happening, different parts of the body started sending data via nerve receptors, nerve wires, etc. to my body’s computer server—the brain. The brain, knowing what to do, started sending instructions to push more water out to clear the blockage, and keep the kidneys online doing their work.

As the kidney couldn’t compensate enough due to the blockage, and with total blockage occurring, the waste started backing up to the kidney plant. Toxic waste was polluting the seven kidney functions. Some kept going. Others were impacted.

When the kidneys cannot process, the body is in trouble. 

Alarms start going off. The body’s defense systems start activating and calling up troops to fight a battle for health and life. High alert status. Pain. The white blood cells and a whole host of bodily warriors and defense systems are all deployed. That was going on for some time.

However, my mind and decisions had been dulled to not listen to pain over a three-year misdiagnosis of irritable bowel. Daily pain caused me to ignore pain I had laying down in bed, in the shower, constipation, and the tired brain fog I was in the past few months.

THAT IS NOT GOOD. IT IS ALSO WHY WE NEED TO GUARD THE EFFECT OTHER HUMANS HAVE ON US. Bad doctors making errors conditioned me to make bad decisions.

Bookmark this thought. I will come back to it in the future. YOU NEED STRONG, WISE, GOOD HUMANS IN YOUR COMMUNITY NETWORK TO LIVE A HEALTHY LIFE.

The brain starts acting to override everything. Get help. Find other humans. You are in trouble. Your life is now threatened. Your health is failing. Your kidney is shutting down. You start talking to family. Calling medically-trained forces to join the fight. Your body starts saying enlist other humans and their bodies. This fight is a threat to your existence. Fight. War. You have to do this. It cannot be put off.

Your glands are now firing ammunition into the blood stream. Fight or flight kicks in. Fight. Fight. Fight. Your mind and emotions, skin, mouth, hands, eyes, are communicating what other parts of the body are processing to other humans. You are now asking for them to help with the battle to keep you alive. A lot is happening all at once.

Love for your family emotions give you strength to fight. I must fight for them. For me. I want to live. All the body is inspired and motivated as you fight. The mind, the body, the emotions are all marching to the beat of your heart.

In that moment when you can see the end of the road of human life in the near distance, we encounter The Mystery. The Unknown. God.

The mind and thought are knowledge some of us are meant to be experts in. I dedicated decades to the study of wisdom, knowledge, ethical rights, the mystery, the unknown and immaterial possibility. I have also studied other areas like the social dynamics of economics, markets, labour, and technical skills needed in finance, marketing, leadership; and more.

The common threads in working in markets and philosophy is logic, probability, the limits of knowledge, and too many more to list now.

Every day, others in the community of human beings need us because they have come to a point in their health or life that they have called for humanity to join their fight. I had to call others to help over the past few days. I called for help when my kidney was blocked and my health and life was threatened. I needed more human beings than me.

I am so glad people in my community who work at Northern Beaches Hospital were there to join me to fight for my life. I want to live, love, and give to others for much longer than midlife. I want to reciprocate because I have received so much.

The community of people we join ourselves to is so important in life. If we choose to live in isolation, we will not have anyone there for us in our moment of need. When we call out for other humans to help us have health and life, will they be there? Will you be there for others?

I was thinking in my moment of desperation and need about my own availability. I was thinking about the communities I belong to. I look at the last few days and take stock of who joined me fight for my health and life. Who was there? Who cares? Who was not there? Who did not care? I am not keeping score. I will give despite what others do. I just need to know who I can count on.

I am so aware right now that the people doing intake and triage at the hospital were part of the chain. The nurses, technicians, doctors, lab workers, and staff were all part of a human network I needed to recover health and stay alive. Some of these people made choices long ago to study medicine and other sciences to give their lives to helping others. People like me fighting for my life and health in a moment of desperate need. I needed them. I needed you.

Every day, we are part of a community of people we need to have life. Life is not always a crisis for us personally. However, every day, it is for some people.  Most days are ordinary experience days. On most days, while others are suffering and fighting for life and health, we are helping each other live and be healthy in non-crisis ways.

What we do helps others have clothing, shelter, food, maintain health, become educated so we can build strong communities of humans who together have the best life and health.

Who we join ourselves to is such an important issue. Will the person you are committed to in family in the best of times and worst of times truly be there? Is their character and commitment what you think it is? In your time of sickness, or when you send the call that you need other humans, will they be there? It is an important question.

What about community organisations you are part of. Where will they be if you lose your job? Your health? Your abilities and capabilities? If you get sick and need help watching your children?

That was a huge challenge for us these past few days. Katie could not come and be with me because we had no one to help watch our little children. In the past, family and friends in America rallied when a family member was sick. The clan or tribe took the kids so there could be presence with the sick.

In times of need, will people wish you well only? If I hear the phrase ” thoughts and prayers,” I immediately think, “well, at least there is a drop of encouragement there.” I was taught we have a human responsibility to do more than wish others well in their hour of need.

Many wisdom traditions ask will people just say (talk is cheap) they hope it works out, but do nothing and take not action? The ancient wisdom literature says some will wish you good luck. They will say, I hope you are warmed and filled seeing that you are homeless and hungry. It is those who take you in and feed you who truly care and love. It’s easy to send a text wishing people well. It’s another thing to day, “What can I do? How can I help? Do you need anything? Anything—just ask. We are here.”

I was part of a beautiful church community called Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Buffalo in the 1990s. They cared. They acted. Their walk and talk were the same. Not everyone, mind you, but enough in that faith community, that I have never had that experience again.

This reminds me of the parable of the Good Samaritan who sees someone injured on the road and helps, pays for their medical care and recovery, and anything else needed while the religious moralists and priest walks by on the other side pretending not to see. Faith without works is a dead faith. We do not need that kind of religion.

Look at the war of Russian aggression right now. Who are feeding and sheltering Ukrainian refugees? Is it you? Are you a Good Samaritan? Are you giving, acting, or just talking?

I have noted who cared for me and visited me in my sickness, and who did not. It goes into my planning now for future moments when I will need other humans to join me to stay alive, fight for my life, or even the love of our community or nation. I will not judge or condemn, but I will not count on some people–that’s for sure.

The body is high level education. It is a microcosm of our entire human existence. It teaches us how many individual parts all joined in one collective person are the driving force necessary for living, for health, for joining together to do what we can never do alone. No one on earth has all knowledge. All power. All resources.

I choose today to live more aware than ever of my role in my community. I am reflecting on how to build my life giving to others, so in my need for others, they will be there to join me in my fight as I have joined them in theirs.

Now, I ask you to pass this on to others so we can build the kind of world that the human body is teaching us we need to build.