Saturday evening, at half-time of the Alabama-LSU basketball game, I admitted to myself that I might have appendicitis and probably should go to the doctor. I had not felt well for a week, but Saturday the pain intensified as the day went on. I struggled to straighten upright from the sofa and shuffled off to the car. Five or six hours later the ER doctor confirmed my diagnosis, had me strapped to a gurney and hoisted into an ambulance which whisked me to St. Vincent's East, lights flashing and sirens blaring. I was delivered directly to my room. It was after midnight by then. The EMT guys dropped me off at the door of room 614 and left before I could tip them. No one was around. It is an odd feeling to be completely alone in a hospital. Seriously, there was no one around. I knew I was at least supposed to get one of those nifty peek-a-boo gowns before getting into bed, but there was no gown to be found. So I just lay down, fully dressed. I had appendicitis after all. It was an emergency. Ultimately a nurse came, gave me the peek-a-boo gown to put on and an I.V. and left. I went fitfully to sleep, waking myself with my own snoring from time to time because when you have a raging appendix you have to sleep on your back or die. The rest of the hospital stay went very well and Sunday afternoon they removed the offending appendix. I was back home on my sofa, sans appendix, a little more than 24 hours after I left it, in time to watch the end of the Grammies. Amazing.
I had to fill several of those 24 hours with something other than pain. So I did a little Internet research on appendicitis to make sure things were going according to the book. It was.
Vestigial organ. The term has nothing to do with the rise of contemporary church music. No, it is a physiological term which describes an anatomical structure which has survived evolution despite having ceased to perform it's purpose.
It has outlived it's usefulness. Like my appendix.
There was a time when the appendix was important. It probably was a place where huge amounts of good bacteria were stored which helped our ancient ancestors digest a diet which included much more cellulose, found in raw plants, leaves and grasses. It was necessary for survival. Thousands and thousands of years ago.
But we stopped eating that stuff a long, long time ago. We did not need that bacteria anymore. The appendix got smaller, but never disappeared. Even though it does not do anything anymore.
Except cause trouble.
It is hard to choose to get rid of things. Just check my kitchen drawers. No, please don't. Sometimes it hurts a lot to get rid of a useless thing because the thing is so embedded and entwined with things that are still doing very important things. It is easier just to let it be, to not disturb it's useless existence.
Until it causes trouble. Until it becomes inflamed and enraged, and causes everything around it to become inflamed and enraged. Even though there is no longer any purpose to its rage at all, except perhaps that it is now has no purpose. So it threatens those things around it that still perform a vital purpose.
We can deny the discomfort, deny the irritation, but when the pain becomes unbearable, and the danger of destruction imminent, we must remove the useless thing or suffer the serious consequences.
Things change. Sometimes we need to help the change along before it becomes so painful.
Physical organs are not the only things that become vestigial.
Vestiges of feudalism. Vestiges of colonialism. Vestiges of apartheid. Vestiges of slavery. Vestiges of segregation. Vestiges of racism. Vestiges of sexism. Vestiges of Reconstruction. Vestiges of the Confederacy. Vestiges of . . . a few more should easily come to mind.
It is often a painful thing to deal with the vestiges of harmful social and cultural institutions which have met or are meeting their demise. The harmful remnants of useless or destructive things that themselves have been rendered non-functional are sometimes stubborn and will not go quietly. So we must help them leave. And we must find ways that cause the least harm (like laparoscopy, Hallelujah).
It is important that we do.
Because when they are gone, we all feel a whole lot better.
.
No comments :
Post a Comment