Musings on Me n My Cells

This article tells how the make-up of our intestinal flora influences our brain chemistry, impacting our moods and our happiness.

It starts out saying: "single-celled organisms—mostly bacteria—outnumber our own cells 10 to one, and most of them make their home in the gut"

This is hard for me to believe. Are our own cells much bigger? It seems like our own brain, muscle, blood, liver, heart, other organ, bone marrow, brain, skin and nerve cells must weigh much more than the contents of our guts...

Plus, consider the ramifications for who I am. I'm a community of all sorts of alien cells...

The day after I worked in the garden, I noticed a scrape on my leg where blood had dried. My body had been pierced, blood cells had come out, died and dried, sealing the breach, and I hadn't even noticed.

I realized it was analogous to government. It does things like fund strange projects, like flying drones over Pakistan and killing people, or investigating strange medical issues, or licensing fracking that pollutes ground water and towns, and doesn't care about the people that are displaced or made sick or die.

And I'm just the same. I pursue some weird upkeep of a few square yards of dirt, not even noticing that a few cells here and there are sacrificed.

I imagined what they must feel like. They dedicate their lives to the ecosystem of my body, doing their parts to keep it going, keep it functioning, keep it healthy, support it physically, keep the brain healthy and alive.

Foreign cells live here, too, contributing to the culture and health of the body.

And what does the brain do? It stresses itself out pursuing money, and trying to solve imaginary problems on the computer all day. It overfeeds the body with unhealthy carbs and sugar, craves the lack of caring that alcohol and drugs provide or the unhealthy hours of sloth in front of TV. And if I get sick, I easily take antibiotics, kill off foreign cells in droves.

Yes, my brain keeps me pretty healthy- I'm about 5 pounds overweight, fit, not addicted to drugs. Still, my commitment to the health of my cells is only a byproduct of my commitment to a rich, ethical life.

Perhaps it's no wonder that government is so easily distracted with wars and other favors for special interests. Government cares about us like our brains care about the cells that make up our bodies. Our cells are viewed only as tools, like politicians view voters...