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amnesiac (2)

Dead space ventilation

Posted by wu on May 27, 2008 at 9:49pm
A portion of every breath we take is wasted on what is called dead space, those areas within our lungs that don't participate in gas exchange. Our immune system is designed to both protect us and kill us if the need arises. If you tallied up every cell in and on our bodies, you'd find that we are outnumbered by an order of magnitude by the bacteria, viruses and god knows what else we rescue from evolutionary deletion. Even more startling, 20 percent of the protein you digest is your own -- you literally digest a bit of yourself every day, to make new bits of yourself, every day. Roughly every seven years, every cell that makes you you has been replaced; even your bone. Entirely new; entirely not ourselves but exactly ourselves. One has to wonder how we manage to hold on to our memories. We are cannibals, we carry death and scourge, we change unwittingly, we decide what to eat for breakfast. Yesterday I woke up sucking on lemons. Who cares. As long as everything's working.I'm about to head to England for summer vacation after a grueling year at school, and while I should be excited to be spending my last 3 months of freedom till retirement indulging every hedonistic whim that strikes my fancy, I feel quite numb and listless. Can't say why. The easy answer would be that all the parts of me I had to selectively mute in order to get through the year just haven't come online yet, but I know that's not it. I haven't packed a single thing yet and I start traveling tomorrow.Last night I was saying summer goodbyes to some friends. Regan, who's on hula-hooping scholarship for medical school, said: "The next time we see each other, we're all going to be different people". Is it possible to mourn for that part of yourself you know is passing on even though you know that what's coming is going to be infinitely better? It's like putting a plate of food in front of someone who's been in stage 4 starvation. You realize the magnitude of what you've been going without for so long, and it immobilizes you.I'm now listening to Amnesiac. If I could administer it intravenously I would.
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