Lamentation V

Jack gazes downward at his tooth.  A frown crosses his face.  His lips are bloody and the rush is getting worse.  He was unprepared for the elbow that crossed his face.  It was a small, accidental gesture.  The perpetrator was talking on his cell phone.  He was unaware that Jack was behind him.  When the man turned around, Jack took an elbow in the face.

One moment can change our life forever.  Jack will never have that tooth back. Although it’s a small thing, it’s permanent.  That’s what shakes him so deeply.

~ü

[Photo: Uncredited]

[This is a film treatment for a series of five lamentations.  Lamentation IV is here.]

Many people consider this beautiful.  Just as many, if not more, find it grotesque.  Why would we focus on what makes us uncomfortable when we have an opportunity to broaden our understanding of the world?

~ü

In a few African and Asian cultures neck rings are worn usually to create the appearance that the neck has been stretched. Padaung (Kayan Lahwi) women of the Kayan people begin to wear neck coils from as young as age two.

The custom of wearing neck rings is related to an ideal of beauty: an elongated neck. When the coils are removed, there is no health danger. The only concern is that the neck muscles are atrophied, and are understandably weaker than the rest of the body. However, there is no proven medical concern for the removal of the coils.

Mind over body.  Immaterial over physical.

Leonid Rogozov

Rogozov was a doctor who took part in the sixth Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1960-1961. He was the only doctor stationed at the Novolazarevskaya Station and, while there, developed peritonitis (an inflammation of the peritoneum, the serous membrane which lines part of the abdominal cavity and viscera.) That meant that he had to perform an appendectomy on himself.

Using only novocaine for local anaesthesia, Rogozov managed to successfully complete the surgery in about two hours. The signs of peritonitis disappeared and he was back to his regular work in two weeks. This is the most famous case of self-surgery. Rogozov went on to live until he was 66, and passed away in 2000.

I love great design.  It’s also good to see New York and Illinois tops on the list. 

If you were to sum up the cost of IQ losses from leaded gasoline (now gone, of course, but the effects live on), the asthma epidemic among today’s kids, military protection of the Middle East, global warming, garden variety smog, plus all the more prosaic things like traffic jams and so forth, I wouldn’t be surprised if the real cost of a gallon of gasoline would have to go up by three or four dollars to pay for it all.