Revealed bodies and lunch on the river

The prospector(my husband) and I left the foothills and drove down to Sacramento today. It was a beautiful, spring-like day and everything had a green glow. Our brown hills have started to change color.Even our "Happy California Cows" seemed more contented than usual. No poppies yet, but it's only a matter of time.

We had been talking about going to see the controversial Bodies Revealed exhibition and decided that this would be a good day to go because we had heard that the weekends could be very crowded. There was a good share of negative publicity about this exhibition because, after all, these were real bodies that had been preserved using a process called polymer preservation. Well, it was an amazing experience. Seeing these human beings from the skeleton to the outer skin was breathtaking, but also kind of overwhelming.

At first I was fascinated seeing the insides of these bodies; but then the realization hit me that this had been a living being with feelings and emotions. I found myself saying "I'm so sorry" to these whole, very dead and exposed humans. I started thinking about Hannibal Lecter and all the real bad horror movies I had ever seen. You know. The ones where you close your eyes during the scary parts. But I couldn't close my eyes. I started looking at the complexity of these bodies, our bodies, my body.... and I was caught up in the wonder of it all. When you see the whole circulatory system standing on it's own, with this network of blood vessels and the heart making it all work, you think that something is going on that is way bigger than anyone really knows; that this heart, that beats continuously inside of us until we die, is a remarkable thing. I saw how the amazing nervous system works and how connected everything is. To see the brain; the mysterious organ that runs the whole show, and learn that we are the only animals who know we are thinking, is, well... food for thought. The human body works in harmony with itself until we damage it or life wears it out. Seeing this exhibit gave me knowledge, a sense of wonder, and a kind of organic (dust to dust) reality. It was sometimes hard to look at but I'm glad we went.

We drove down to Old Town Sacramento for lunch: Ate good sandwiches at a restaurant on the river and looked through some of the shops just for fun. Bought some toys for my grandson's birthday next month and a caramel apple for dessert. YUM!

Got home in time to feed our spoiled dogs and pick a few weeds that were appearing( way to fast) in the garden. Didn't feel like a big dinner so we grazed our way through the evening and watched four more American Idol contenders bit the dust.

Good to be home.