On one of your emotionally down days - everyone has those kind of moments at one time or another - you may wonder or even second guess what your true value really is in the worldly scheme of things, or whether your life is up to some noble purpose or, at least, of some relevance or pertinence to others. If that has not been apparent to you yet or not quite made clear to you and to others who care about you at this point in your existence, there is something you must first consider. It took a lot to make you you. However, when you do want to look at that, you are faced with, "what, who, took a lot to make you, or to create you?" Well, before you get to that depth of thought, you may want to begin this way, first.
A new book just came out. "The Body", subtitled, "A Guide For Occupants", written by Bill Bryson, is one engaging book. Easy to read and quite a wealth of material that is all about you - physically. Now, since it unmistakably refers to you as "occupant", you will also have to wonder. Does occupant mean, "occupancy" in the temporary sense, or is it permanent only in one sense? You will not find the answer to that specific question in the book but there is so much there that perhaps can or will lead you to the answer, if you elect to do that. Or, you can just be satisfied in knowing that "it" took a lot to make you you. But first things first.
The author begun on page 1, "Long ago, when I was a junior high school student in Iowa, I remember being taught by a biology teacher that all the chemicals that make up a human body could be bought in a hardware store for $5.00 or something like that. I don't recall the actual sum. It might have been $2.97 or $13.50, but it was certainly very little even in 1960s money, and I remember being astounded at the thought that you could make a slouched and pimply thing such as me for practically nothing."
That was the estimate then and by any measure, including accounting for inflation, you are apparently very cheap to make. However, now that science has finally caught up with a little clarity on what really makes you, in current dollars, and the discovery that some exotic chemical elements, such as thorium, niobium, etc. are part of you, the average human body can now be made precisely for $151,578.46 worth of materials. Of that total amount, calcium, potassium and phosphorus account for $73,000. Add labor cost, sales tax and other "incidentals", you, if you are of average build, can be had for just under $300,000.00.
But, from another source, like Nova, the science show, the value that was presented was a lot less. $168 dollars to make you. The difference? The first modern estimate, from Britain's Royal Society of Chemistry, took only the finest carbon, 30 pounds of it, that by the way cost $69,550 and the purest form of oxygen that is 61% of the total body weight, pristine hydrogen and other exotic chemical elements that together make up all 59 of them to make you. Oxygen and hydrogen will only set you back, relatively, a meager $40. But when all is said and done, that's what you get from an estimator that combines British, Royal and Society all in one line.
Anyhow, based on those two numbers, you could be worth an economy version of a Bentley, or a Lamborghini Urus, or maybe a Mercedes Maybach (taxes and delivery fees already included for each vehicle price). Or, all of the entire you, based on the Nova estimate, is probably worth just two tickets for an early-in-the-season major league baseball game plus two drinks and four hotdogs. Those are not premium seats either. They're halfway between the nose-bleed sections and the dugout.
Whichever it is, if you must know, chemically you are a carbon based organism, where oxygen and hydrogen are a compound in a mixture of 2 parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, otherwise known as water, which accounts for a good chunk of your weight, depending on your eating habits, of course.
You are special because among all the living creatures, you are the only one who is self aware and self conscious. You are concerned about how you look - to yourself and to others. And sometimes you could be preoccupied with how others look to you. Another quote from the book,
"Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes down to the bone."
---- Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was a satirist (and poet) whose life straddled two centuries. She was born in 1893, died in 1967. It was easy for her to say, she was once young and attractive.
She was right about the depth of beauty though. The outer layer, the epidermis, which is how you look to or recognized by others, is only 0.1 millimeter, or about the thickness of bond paper. The skin is the largest organ, about 20 square feet of area, but its pigments are definitely only onion skin deep, yet that is how you are defined racially. Underneath, white, black, brown, are skin colors so inconsequential, they are irrelevant.
Now, here is where it gets you to think a little too deeply. If you are indeed average, your body will consist of about 37 trillion cells, all doing different things to keep you "alive", physically that is. Of all of them, not a single cell actually recognizes you, or even care who you are. They all kind of do their thing, oblivious to who you really are. Even more astounding is that at the atomic level, there are 7 octillion (billion billion billion) atoms to make you.
Bill Bryson wrote, "No one can say why those 7 billion billion billion have such an urgent desire to be you... Yet somehow for the length of your existence, they will build and maintain all the countless systems and structures necessary to keep you humming, to make you you ..."
And here is where you might think more deeply. Bill Bryson, as exhaustive as his writing was, does not cover this, or even give a hint. You are the occupant of a body that does not recognize you but you are the only one that thinks, or care. So, where do you get that ability. Consider this then. It can be controversial, it may not even make sense, but equally hopeful. You may recognize it or this is entirely new to you. What, if indeed your occupancy is temporary in a body made up of cells and atoms that are there merely as a temporary dwelling. Absurd perhaps but does it not give you much more to look forward to when you know your consciousness could conceivably transcend the existence of 37 trillion cells?
It took maybe 2-3 billion years before you became you. Your DNA can be traced back to proto organisms, a fist size primate, and that 50% of your DNA are shared with a banana. You are smiling or rolling your eyes but you can find this out with a few keystrokes. Right now, while you're on your smart phone or tablet, or in front of your desktop. Any break in the cell divisions along your genealogy or the path taken by your ancestors that led to you and you will not be reading this. It took unbelievable circumstances to get you here at this present moment. It is something to behold. DNA is one of the most enduring phenomenon in nature. It can last for weeks, months, years, outside your body, or millions of years deep in the crevices of a piece of bone. The trail it left behind to get you here is 2-3 billion years long.
No more speculation. Just think. There must be more purpose, there must be a universal reason that you are you. To think that will not only give you hope, you will overcome fear, you can look forward to the idea that your physical body is afterall suited only for temporary occupancy and maybe, maybe this thing about spiritual meaning and transcendental existence is what it is all about. Your call. It is you that matters. It is all about what makes you you.
A new book just came out. "The Body", subtitled, "A Guide For Occupants", written by Bill Bryson, is one engaging book. Easy to read and quite a wealth of material that is all about you - physically. Now, since it unmistakably refers to you as "occupant", you will also have to wonder. Does occupant mean, "occupancy" in the temporary sense, or is it permanent only in one sense? You will not find the answer to that specific question in the book but there is so much there that perhaps can or will lead you to the answer, if you elect to do that. Or, you can just be satisfied in knowing that "it" took a lot to make you you. But first things first.
The author begun on page 1, "Long ago, when I was a junior high school student in Iowa, I remember being taught by a biology teacher that all the chemicals that make up a human body could be bought in a hardware store for $5.00 or something like that. I don't recall the actual sum. It might have been $2.97 or $13.50, but it was certainly very little even in 1960s money, and I remember being astounded at the thought that you could make a slouched and pimply thing such as me for practically nothing."
That was the estimate then and by any measure, including accounting for inflation, you are apparently very cheap to make. However, now that science has finally caught up with a little clarity on what really makes you, in current dollars, and the discovery that some exotic chemical elements, such as thorium, niobium, etc. are part of you, the average human body can now be made precisely for $151,578.46 worth of materials. Of that total amount, calcium, potassium and phosphorus account for $73,000. Add labor cost, sales tax and other "incidentals", you, if you are of average build, can be had for just under $300,000.00.
But, from another source, like Nova, the science show, the value that was presented was a lot less. $168 dollars to make you. The difference? The first modern estimate, from Britain's Royal Society of Chemistry, took only the finest carbon, 30 pounds of it, that by the way cost $69,550 and the purest form of oxygen that is 61% of the total body weight, pristine hydrogen and other exotic chemical elements that together make up all 59 of them to make you. Oxygen and hydrogen will only set you back, relatively, a meager $40. But when all is said and done, that's what you get from an estimator that combines British, Royal and Society all in one line.
Anyhow, based on those two numbers, you could be worth an economy version of a Bentley, or a Lamborghini Urus, or maybe a Mercedes Maybach (taxes and delivery fees already included for each vehicle price). Or, all of the entire you, based on the Nova estimate, is probably worth just two tickets for an early-in-the-season major league baseball game plus two drinks and four hotdogs. Those are not premium seats either. They're halfway between the nose-bleed sections and the dugout.
Whichever it is, if you must know, chemically you are a carbon based organism, where oxygen and hydrogen are a compound in a mixture of 2 parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, otherwise known as water, which accounts for a good chunk of your weight, depending on your eating habits, of course.
You are special because among all the living creatures, you are the only one who is self aware and self conscious. You are concerned about how you look - to yourself and to others. And sometimes you could be preoccupied with how others look to you. Another quote from the book,
"Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes down to the bone."
---- Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was a satirist (and poet) whose life straddled two centuries. She was born in 1893, died in 1967. It was easy for her to say, she was once young and attractive.
She was right about the depth of beauty though. The outer layer, the epidermis, which is how you look to or recognized by others, is only 0.1 millimeter, or about the thickness of bond paper. The skin is the largest organ, about 20 square feet of area, but its pigments are definitely only onion skin deep, yet that is how you are defined racially. Underneath, white, black, brown, are skin colors so inconsequential, they are irrelevant.
Now, here is where it gets you to think a little too deeply. If you are indeed average, your body will consist of about 37 trillion cells, all doing different things to keep you "alive", physically that is. Of all of them, not a single cell actually recognizes you, or even care who you are. They all kind of do their thing, oblivious to who you really are. Even more astounding is that at the atomic level, there are 7 octillion (billion billion billion) atoms to make you.
Bill Bryson wrote, "No one can say why those 7 billion billion billion have such an urgent desire to be you... Yet somehow for the length of your existence, they will build and maintain all the countless systems and structures necessary to keep you humming, to make you you ..."
And here is where you might think more deeply. Bill Bryson, as exhaustive as his writing was, does not cover this, or even give a hint. You are the occupant of a body that does not recognize you but you are the only one that thinks, or care. So, where do you get that ability. Consider this then. It can be controversial, it may not even make sense, but equally hopeful. You may recognize it or this is entirely new to you. What, if indeed your occupancy is temporary in a body made up of cells and atoms that are there merely as a temporary dwelling. Absurd perhaps but does it not give you much more to look forward to when you know your consciousness could conceivably transcend the existence of 37 trillion cells?
It took maybe 2-3 billion years before you became you. Your DNA can be traced back to proto organisms, a fist size primate, and that 50% of your DNA are shared with a banana. You are smiling or rolling your eyes but you can find this out with a few keystrokes. Right now, while you're on your smart phone or tablet, or in front of your desktop. Any break in the cell divisions along your genealogy or the path taken by your ancestors that led to you and you will not be reading this. It took unbelievable circumstances to get you here at this present moment. It is something to behold. DNA is one of the most enduring phenomenon in nature. It can last for weeks, months, years, outside your body, or millions of years deep in the crevices of a piece of bone. The trail it left behind to get you here is 2-3 billion years long.
No more speculation. Just think. There must be more purpose, there must be a universal reason that you are you. To think that will not only give you hope, you will overcome fear, you can look forward to the idea that your physical body is afterall suited only for temporary occupancy and maybe, maybe this thing about spiritual meaning and transcendental existence is what it is all about. Your call. It is you that matters. It is all about what makes you you.
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