St Paul's Science Museum of Minnesota

In front of Science Museum
Originally uploaded by HeyMing.

I visited the Science Museum along with my friends Yerhee and Kumin. The museum happens to host the "Body Worlds" exhibit. Body worlds

The exhibit was interesting and eye opening. For I have learned quite a lot throughout the exhibit. Learned the technique behind the plastination (using polymer/plastic) - my friend Kumin is a polymer expert and hold a PhD in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is currently working for Boston Scientific working on new materials for the LEAD (a wire) inside pacemakers. While at the science center, there was another Medtronic exhibit of arteries which he explained to me the workings of a healthy heart and when they is a need for pacemakers.

So I went inside the exhibit... (the exhibit happens to be sponsored by Medtronic (medical device maker aka pacemakers - Medtronic has large R&D and manufacturing centers all over Minneapolis & St Paul area)). As I entered the exhibit... the effect was chilling at first. I had goosebumps running throughout my spine... I didn't know what to expect. I have heard of the exhibit. It came to Toronto once. Am I going to be seeing "art"? dead people? My mind was spinning trying to be open and tolerant and just learn. I had closed encounter with dead bodies before... of relatives, family, friends who have passed away either tragically or through illness... yet they were embalmed and in a more "respectful" way in a coffin... and interred in due course. Needless to say that what I saw was mind boggling. It's really a personal experience. I understand for myself why I didn't study to become a medical doctor... how much they had to go through anatomy classes and dissecting through donated bodies in order to learn the inner workings of the human body. In high school biology classes, I recalled dissecting frogs, piglets and mice. It was really nothing.

Yet for this exhibit, these are real bodies - flesh and blood... I could see and feel the eyes of the "cadavers" staring at you as if they were alive. To me it was a pain they had to go through their lives. I wonder how they could have donated their sacred body to this "art" form or display. They must have been so liberated in order to donate it to the "Body Worlds" team. And be able to travel to so many different parts of the world. For one, I saw many bodies' lung so dark... (cases of heavy smokers)... others still have tattoos on skins....

All in all - I still view life as precious, the body as precious. These ought to be buried properly instead of testing time. LIVE A HEALTHY LIFE. As we are baptized in Christ, our body is a temple to Jesus. A clean temple honors Jesus. Thus live a healthy life... a balance life i.e. spiritually, physically and mentally.