We did a day trip to Seattle yesterday to see Bodies:The Exhibition. This pic is from my favorite section where they isolated the vascular system of various organs by injecting some kind of plastic into them then dissolved the rest of the tissue with chemicals. Amazing. I noticed this morning that going into the exhibit with a decent knowledge of muscles and bones helped me take away some interesting insight for my massage practice. As I worked on my first client this morning, I couldn't help but imagine the shape of the muscles more clearly and how, there, just under the first rib at the top of his shoulder, sat his lungs. Having examined all those flayed and displayed layers of skin, fat, muscles, veins and nerves, it is easy to see how everything is connected.

If you're anywhere near one of these shows, go see it. It's a million worlds away from the brightly colored anatomy drawings most of us know. They have a smoker's lungs and arteries clogged with atherosclerosis. Plus they also have a real teratoma tumor a type of growth that can contain hair and teeth. It reminded me of this story by Julia Slavin about a woman who grows teeth all over her body. It's posted on the Crescent Review website, but is also available in her book The Woman Who Cut off Her Leg at the Maidstone Club.