Borrowed
Bones
by
Kenny A. Chaffin
All Rights Reserved © 2013 Kenny A. Chaffin
A poet ought not to
pick nature's pocket.
Let him borrow, and so
borrow as to repay
by the very act of
borrowing…and trust more
to the imagination than
the memory.
-- Samuel Taylor
Coleridge
You begin your existence as a
single gelatinous cell deep in your mother’s body though you will have no
understanding, no awareness of that existence for a number of years. That
single cell from your mother along with a single strand of DNA from your father
was assembled from proteins, nutrients and amino acids. Those things, like all
things are made of atoms which have existed since their birth in the hearts of
stars billions of years ago. Those atoms once brought into existence by those
nuclear furnaces are extremely stable and extremely long-lived. Everything that
we are and everything around us is made from those ancient atoms that are at billions
of years old. The hydrogen in your body (mostly in molecular water) is as old
as the universe itself having been formed shortly after the big bang. The other
elements range from 7 – 12 billion years old and were created in first and
second generation stars. First generation stars formed just after the birth of
the universe 13.8 billion years ago. Second generation stars formed after many
of the first generation exploded in supernovas spreading their atoms and
remaining original gases into space. Our own sun is a third generation star
made from the remains of those that have gone before as well as primordial
hydrogen and helium. In something of a similar manner, when you die your
proteins, amino acids and the atoms they are comprised of will return to the Earth
from which they came to be reused by others or for other purposes such as trees,
mountains, clouds or oceans. We are all borrowers. We borrow what we need while
we are here. We live on borrowed bones that someday must be returned.
That
original single cell that was you did what all cells do, with no direction from
you or from your mother; it conscripted atoms from its environment and incorporated
them into itself. It grew, divided to become two cells, then four and eight,
all using those atoms from long-dead stars. As an adult your body is constantly
replacing itself. They say that all the cells in your body are replaced every
decade or so. That being the case, how is it that ‘you’ continue to exist?
Clearly it is not the physical cells that are you. Even brain cells which are the
seat of awareness and consciousness are replaced over time despite the urban
myth to the contrary. What is it then that is you or me? Is life an illusion? Are
we nothing more than ambulatory repositories for selfish genes as Dawkins
argued decades ago? Would life be any different if we were?
Just as the
features of your face, your skin color and texture does not change when its
cells are replaced neither does your experience of self – your self-awareness --
when your brain cells are replaced. Certainly injuries to the brain can change
this, just as a bodily injury can change your appearance. Brain injuries can of
course cause you to become someone else or even become unaware of yourself, but
under normal circumstances even though all your cells may be replaced, you are
still you.
Your facial
features, the color of your eyes, those freckles on your skin as well as your
brain cells and their connections are maintained by your bodily processes in a
constant battle against entropy (the tendency of things to fall apart, lose
energy, etc.). New cells replace old
cells and are copies of the cells they replace. Skin cells die and flake off.
Internal cells such as those responsible for the color of your eyes, die and
are carried off by the blood stream or are broken down into their constituent
proteins and amino acids and carried off or reused in place. This is all done
in a manner that maintains that physical arrangement that defines your
features, your body. It’s that pattern, that arrangement, that relationship
between cells and proteins that makes your body what it is and makes you who
you are. Your consciousness, your self-awareness, your mind is an arrangement
as well. It is a pattern of connected brain cells and their neuronal firings
that begin long before you are aware. You are a pattern of information, a
process of your brain that is maintained by your body’s homeostasis. All the
cells, atoms, neurons and neurotransmitters in your brain can be replaced
individually and as long as the replacement maintains the original pattern you
will still be you. If on the other hand the replacement is faulty like with Alzheimer’s
disease then we begin to change. We become someone else or we lose a part of
ourselves.
Each of us is
only on this Earth for a short time; we arise from the atoms around us, driven
by unique information in our DNA. Our bodies are arrangements, patterns built
from the information contained in our DNA. We learn, we become, and we are those
dynamic arrangements built of borrowed bones, borrowed atoms, neurons and neuronal
firings in our brains. We are borrowers. We borrow atoms to build and repair
our bodies for the time we are here and when we are done we return them for
others to use over and over and over again.
References/Resources/Links
DNA:
Stellar Nucleosynthesis:
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis:
Brain/Mind:
About the Author
Kenny A. Chaffin writes
poetry, fiction and nonfiction and has published poems and fiction in Vision Magazine, The Bay Review, Caney
River Reader, WritersHood, Star*Line, MiPo, Melange and Ad Astra and
has published nonfiction in The
Writer, The Electron, Writers Journal and Today’s Family. He grew up in
southern Oklahoma and now lives in Denver, CO where he works hard to make
enough of a living to support two cats, numerous wild birds and a bevy of
squirrels. His poetry collections No
Longer Dressed in Black and The Poet of Utah Park and his collection of science essays How
do we Know are available at Amazon.com:
