<< 'Special' Report | Main | Cass Bar Diversion >> May 24, 2006 >> The Young Visit the Dead
I held Kelly's hand as she bounced along beside me in the sun, childishly excited for... something. I don't think anyone really knew what to expect. I was picturing some kind of giant educational playground where kids frolicked inside a giant plastic body: climbing through finger tunnels, swinging from day-glo intestines and sliding down a big red tongue. What we got was significantly less play and significantly more morgue autopsy. The museum staff was friendly enough but when the first stop on our tour was a skinless, sinewy zombie palming a basketball, I knew we were in trouble. Suspicious, I peeked down the hallway while the kids were learning about muscle systems and saw endless examples of the most hideous biological monstrosity imaginable: the human body peeled back, unmasked and exposed. Creepy skulls and flayed horrors. Heads cross-sectioned and fingers severed. I thought of the children and returned to the group, expecting the worst. Kelly was crying softly, looking at the floor and not wanting to examine the corpses further. The rest of the kids were strangely intrigued, with facial reactions ranging from mild disgust to childlike enthusiasm (for anything new and gross). "Don't worry," I told Kelly. "None of them are real... they're all plastic or some stuff." Then I found out that every exhibit was a real person, once living and breathing until a rude finale landed their expired body here. A skeleton propped up on a bike, bony feet glued mid-pedal. A set of severed genatalia, looking woefully undersized. A muscle zombie with a basketball. A once-man, lying on a table, his body diced into pancake strips. I couldn't really blame Kelly for crying.
That day we saw preserved death in every form imaginable in the almighty name of science. And it was morbidly interesting and it was accurate and the mechanics of the human body is existence itself, but somehow I felt bad for the kids, like they shouldn't have to see the world like this. Not just yet. But, apart from Kelly, they all seemed to survive their encounter with the Informative Morgue just fine. We adjourned to the park and the kids ate, fought and played with anthills. They may have learnt that our lives are short and the end unappealing, but they also figured out that the existence of an insect colony is infinitely shorter.
[Human biology] [Death] [Korean school trips] [Unattractive life lessons] [Revulsion] Posted by Chris at 09:48 AM >> Commentations (4)
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
"Any fool can make history, but it takes a genius to write it."
July 2007
June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 |
This was, hands-down, the weirdest and most unnerving field trip in my short history of education. Originally billed as a museum visit to learn about the human body, we somehow ended up in a grim mausoleum of cadavers and dead babies. 
