Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Embalmnation

So the other day, I saw a real dead body. Really, for the first time.

My hand, in an attempt to photograph something seemingly relevant

Alright, not in person, but rather in an instructional video. A training video for the process of embalming.

Apparently they have trade schools for everything. They call it Mortuary Science. Creep-tastic. Context: I'm currently in an Anthropology class on Death, so we get to hear about stuff like this 2 hours a day.

This was different, though. This was a real video, and a real dead body. I kept thinking over and over thats just a body just like I have a body... but different. They poke and they prod and they sew the mouth shut, and as would be expected, there are no signs of resistance. There's nobody in there. It's empty of life.

Empty... vacant. It was unreal, there should have been someone in there! It looked like there should be... his spirit had truly left him.

It was a strangely spiritual realization. How could you not look at that kind of body and understand that our existence is so far beyond the physical? That this flesh is merely a tent, as scripture refers to it?

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