There’s nothing like a week spent drowning in snot to remind you that you have a body. For most people, snot is a distasteful greenish-yellow goo of differing viscous states, some of which rival Gorilla Glue for adhesive power. The possibility of snot is not something you would choose if designing your own body, but we weren’t given a choice. You are born with a particular carcass, most of which, including snot, cannot be changed.
Even though we are naturally snotty creatures, we are taught to hide its presence. Polite society uses handkerchiefs or tissues to mop up nose drool and then proceed as if everything is normal. Sleeves and the palm of your hand are frowned upon. If you have to hack up a homunculus, because you are literally gagging, it is considered proper form to do so out of sight and hearing, although a spot with sufficient isolation can be difficult to find. In my experience, if you do this in a men’s room and then leave, without a sufficient lapse of time (generally one to two hours) you will find people staring in disgust and revulsion. Snot happens to all of us, but neither do we like to be reminded.
Our bodies do other revolting things and we don’t like to be reminded of them, either. With sufficient resources, you can devote an entire room in your home to the disposal of your body’s toxic waste, complete with locking door, fan, and Febreze. Out of sight, out of mind. The things our bodies make us do.
Perhaps the most distressing thing our bodies do is die. We can live with snot; living with death is like a contradiction in terms. We mostly learn to ignore it, since, unlike snot and waste disposal, death doesn’t call attention to itself in quite the same way. It’s not a daily or seasonal activity. Pretty much, it only happens once, at the end, which is good news for procrastinators, which, when it comes to death, most of us are.
It has also created an economic sector devoted to avoiding death. Someone is paying for Ted Williams’ cryogenically frozen head, after all. Scientists are investigating how to stop our biological clocks; everyone hopes to be 25 when they figure that out. We also may be able to replace your vital organs with fabricated substitutes, so that you can perhaps reach 500, which isn’t forever, but is better than four-score-and ten. By the time you reach half a thousand, they may have the biological clock in hand, and there you go.
Little thought is given to what the world would be like if nobody died. Overcrowding might be an issue, for example. Affordable housing would be even worse, along with disposal of that toxic waste. Presumably, you’d still have to work at that job you can barely stand now, only for a very long time. You’d never be able to lay down your burdens by the riverside.
Our continual attempts to avoid bodily existence obscure the fact that bodies serve useful purposes, and not simply as vehicles for having sex and navigating the landscape. Something has to tether our grandiose egos to physical reality. Experiencing our limits helps us to know what they are. Life is precious because it’s ephemeral.
Bodies are the great leveler. Even the beautiful and rich people produce toxic waste and have to do something with it. They also get snot and hack up mucous. They also die and dead people are all the same. Nothing but bodies.
Ignoring our embodied status also leads to mistakes. Why else would we despoil the planet?
So, stop ignoring the tutorials provided by your most precious resource. The next time you’re breathing through your mouth all night, wake up and say thanks for the lesson in humility. We can use more of it these days.
Picture of bodies by kirill_makes_pics from Pixabay
Picture of man on toilet by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
Picture of tenement building by Aleksandar Pasaric: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-brown-red-and-white-buildings-2451032/
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