From Another Perspective

This issue is very difficult to deal with. But I am reminded of a discussion in group many months ago. The men were discussing the idea that some of the problem is the attraction to the unknown -- once they got to know another man as a person, they were no longer attracted to him. From my own experience, I suggest that part of the problem is also cultural. In the Puritan or Victorian culture which is so much part of our culture, there was a reluctance to discuss certain subjects, particularly anything that had to do with the human reproductive or execretory systems. From an anatomical point of view, this is fairly senseless. And yet the taboo persists. And the fact that we cannot socially discuss such topics simply adds to the unfortunate air of mystery which compounds the problem.

Everyone who is active in the church knows the answers to the question: Why are we here on earth? [To gain a body, and to be tested.] I think our Puritan/Victorian reluctance to think about the human body as a miraculous blessing sometimes obscures what could be a source of great gratitude in our lives.

I offer the following as a brief diversion from the issues surrounding the topic of SSA. As you think about this, consider what a great blessing the human body is.

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I have been reading Gray’s Anatomy, a work originally published in 1905. It is a detailed description of the human body, its development, and many of its functions.

Reading it, though tedious at times, has been a powerful reminder of what a marvelous blessing it is to have a physical body (one of the answers you always hear when the question is asked: “Why are we here on earth?”) It also reminds me of what miracles surround us daily, in the development, growth, and functioning of our physical bodies.

Some of the major bones of the body are as follows:

Spine – composed of 33 vertebrae, including (from top to bottom) 7 cervical, 12 dorsal, 5 lumbar, 5 sacral, and 4 coccygeal

Skull – composed of 8 bones which make up the brain case and 14 bones which make up the skeleton of the face

Sternum – a flat narrow bone situated in the median line of the front of the chest

Ribs

Clavicle – the collar-bone, located between the sternum and the shoulder

Scapula – the shoulder blade

Humerus – the bone of the upper arm

Ulna and Radius – two “parallel” bones of the forearm

Femur – the bone of the thigh

Tibia and Fibula – the “parallel” bones of the (lower) leg

Patella – the kneecap

Of course, there are a number of other bones, but if I listed them all, this summary would be longer than a summary.

In anatomy, the word “articulation” refers to the joint where two bones come together and interact.

One of the first interesting things I discovered was that the basis for much of the movement in the shoulder is in the articulation of the clavicle with the sternum. At first this seems to be a little odd. But the following illustrates the point.

With your left elbow by your side, feel your left clavicle with the fingers of your right hand. Now move your left shoulder up and down, forward and back, and note how the clavicle moves with the shoulder. Shoulder movement is based in the relationship of the clavicle with the sternum. When the shoulder moves, it is driven by the clavicle.

The movement of the forearm is the next interesting articulation. The ulna is the larger bone of the forearm. When the arm is bent at a 90 degree angle with the palm of the hand down, the large bump at the end of the elbow is the end of the ulna. If you move your fingers down the arm toward the hand from that point, you can feel the ulna down to its other end, which is a large bump at the wrist. Now, keeping your fingers on the ulna, rotate the arm outward to bring the palm of the hand up. Note how the ulna does not move, but the other bone of the forearm (the radius) rotates around the elbow joint. Isn’t that pretty amazing?

Next, note that when the arms are extended by the sides and then bent, the hands naturally come toward the face. Another way to see this is to hold the arms straight out in front of the body, with the forearms at a 90 degree angle to the upper arms. From this position, try rotating the arms outward (either left or right), and note that movement is very limited. However, if the arms are rotated in the other direction, the hands will come together, or the hands can touch the opposite elbows. It is interesting to observe that these motions of the arms and elbows facilitate both eating and giving hugs, two of the more important things we do.

Another interesting observation has to do with the (lower) leg. The tibia is the major bone of the leg, the fibula is smaller. The fibula is located on the outside, the tibia on the inside. The “shin” bone is the tibia. The inferior end of the fibula forms the exterior bump on the side of the foot often referred to as the ankle bone. The inner bump on the opposite side is the end of the tibia. If you move your foot, you will note that all motion occurs below those two bumps, which are the ends of the long bones.

Also interesting to note is how the tibia and fibula join the foot. They do not join with the foot at the back of the foot, but about one fourth to one third of the way between the heel and the toes. Unlike how we drew a foot as children, the ankle is not above the heel.

For one last observation, look how the knee and hip joints interact. The knee does not provide much rotation. The rotation of the legs is provided from the hip joint. (This is best observed in the shower, but don’t spend too long doing your scientific observations.) Note that the knee joint allows the leg to flex and extend (from a straight position to a 90 degree angle), but that nearly all of the rotation of the leg comes from the hip joint. Also notice how much rotation and twisting motion is available from the hips.

These are just a few samples of the incredible things we take for granted. If you study how your body works, you will continue to be amazed.

Controlling Thoughts

Years ago I read an essay by Truman Madsen which gave me a lot of insight. The ideas it expresses proved helpful in some of my most trying moments, as I struggled to learn to control thought. The following quotation from that essay is taken from "Christ and the Inner Life," the chapter entitled "Christ and Conquering Thoughts," published as part of Five Classics by Truman G. Madsen (Deseret Book Company, 2001).

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So suppose a diabolical picture comes to mind, a thought of which we are ashamed (or is it the feeling we have toward the thought that makes us ashamed?). The force of it may blot out all that we ordinarily see and feel. Spiritual sensitivities are the first to go. We isolate this fraction of consciousness (I've got to have this out!), build up syrupy anticipation, convince ourselves that this is what we really want, and become numb to all else. Thus, it is fitting to speak of blind rage, blind greed, blind passion. In his Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis has the devil say to a henchman, "It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds; in reality our best work is done by keeping things out." We have forgotten that we would "always remember him" (which is more than remembering his teachings).

In such a moment of distress how can you pull him into your consciousness so that strength replaces weakness? I designate two ways from the prophets.

1. Picture Christ and remember how you are bound to him. In the crisis for example, when your temples thunder, imagine what you are tempted to do as if it were a large sledge hammer. See! See if you can stand at the cross and by this act or indulgence swing that hammer on the nail. That will break your compulsive pattern and restore enough to your consciousness to enable you to cry out and mean, "No!"

2. The other picture is positive. It is the more calm but daily vision to overarch all else.

It is the vision of the real-in-prospect.

Take, for example carnal thoughts, the bubbling erotica which imbue our environment and, mysteriously, the subconscious. Ask yourself what you really want. But as you ask, invite and invoke your spirit, the deepest and best in you, and the Master's Spirit. Search with him for the vision of love and marriage that can claim your whole being, to include, but not end with, the chemistry of the flesh.

Such a vision will bring into focus a queen or king, an anticipation of the real thing. You will be inspired by your righteous thirst for such kinships and excitements. You will envision love that glorifies a pathway through the temple of God, and finally the culmination in which there is whiteness and joy.

Thus you take raw subliminal impulses that corrode. You sublimate (literally make subline) them into conscious, desirable pictures. You light corroding fire with redeeming fire. And Christ who is the exemplar of all forms of godly love becomes the revelator both of your own possibilities in the world of affection and of the pathway that will make them actual.

Without such a vision the heart is sort of a mixer of cheap poisons for our veins. But with it life takes on a deep-breathing color of godliness. But isn't it sinful or at least impractical to have such visionary fantasies? Listen to Orson Pratt: "There is no danger of loving too much, but only of loving too little." Lurid, lustful desires are a form of the "too little." But the effulgent dream of godly love is "at the foundation of everything worthy to be called happiness."

You doubt? You fear to open up your own caldron to the Christ?

Then go on pretending, if you must, that there is a way to hide. But hear in the distance what, if you will, you can feel in the marrow of your bones. It is a contemporary voice the Lord expressed in Doctrine and Covenants 6:36: "Look to me in every thought; doubt not, fear not."