The physical essence of a humanbeing pertains to the body:the “machine in which we live” as some say, but I find it degrading to compare this majestic creation of God to a bucket of bolts or pile of wires. Nevertheless, this is the easiest category to envision. It envelopes the entire physiology concerning the medical profession including the limbs and digits, the digestion and cardiovascular system, the nervous system, and the plumbing of sexuality. The physical also contains electrical, chemical, hormonal and other properties…
Factors affecting the physical include eating habits, exercise, sleep patterns, sickness, stress, trauma, etc.To be physically healthy is to be able to complete a broad range of works and activities without undue stress or pain to this system. As we will see when we get to the religious aspect of life, this body is an integral part of us throughout eternity. It will die, but death is temporary: we will find ourselves in our body again when we reach eternity – Whatever that eternal destination.
In a perfect world, we would never have a scrape or bruise. We would never wake up to frizzy hair or bad breath. We would not need makeup or deodorant. We would never get sick, grow old and die. Physical health means we do not need a doctor, we are not sick and we can accomplish any task set before us. Now that we have imagined what physical health is, let us imagine how this health can be violated.
Working in a hospital, I see many traumas. I saw the four men brought in after an explosion in the oil field. I see motorcycle accidents, people thrown out of vehicles during rollovers, a family T-boned by someone running a stop sign, and stroke victims. On other floors, we have our hip and knee replacements, the heart attack people and kidney dialysis. There are quarantine patients that have contracted some sort of vires, others with colds or food poisoning and a myriad of others with other afflictions including cancers. I see people abused by objects, viruses and bacteria. I helped carry the body of a woman out who had abused herself with drugs. There is no doubt what the physical can mean: Everything medical: what we can touch and feel.
It also goes beyond medical to include bio-chemical. For example, is emotion, while a response to external stimuli, simply a chemical or neurological reaction? Is it physical, chemical or psychological? It does not matter. I will lay my descriptions out in basic terms. For our purposes we do not need the infinite details because of the overlap.
As a young boy, my father gave me a bicycle for my fifth birthday. I had to learn how to ride it. This involved training my motor skills and bruising my knee once or twice. The physical can be trained as well as injured.
Let’s make a short list covering some of the ways the human body can be assaulted.
1) Trauma
a) Bruises
b) Broken bones
c) Cuts, abrasions and lacerations
2) Abuse by others
a) Physical abuse causing the above traumas
3) Self-abuse
a) Drinking
b) Drugs
c) Suicide
4) Health
a) Viral or Bacterial
b) Disease
c) Eating habits
d) Exercise
e) Deftness and blindness
f) Heart attacks, strokes, and dementia
5) Biological changes
a) Puberty
b) Metaphase
c) Pregnancy
d) Old age
This list is not exhaustive. The point is this one category is elaborate and detailed. No one understands the physical body completely despite centuries of study. Given the complexity of the human body, one wonders, “Are these other categories equally detailed?” “Have we only begun to recognize their complexity?”
Homework:What I want you to do here is to think of ways a person can be traumatized physically. What effect does it have in other areas of life? For example a sickness can affect the financial as well as the emotional or mental. As I write this, I am experiencing a bruised rib. I did not work today. I spent three hours at the clinic. I pulled the car over on my way home because I needed to cough. Even now, it takes a full sixty seconds to prepare myself to get out of this chair. Realize that an injury in one area is an injury in all areas.
Once we recognize this, we can address the injury and begin rebuilding and healing these areas.
Auto accident: There are three collisions in an auto crash. The first is when the automobile hits something. The second is when the passenger hits the automobile and the third is when the internal organs hit the wall of the body. It is this third crash that causes the damage. The internal organs rip from the linings that hold them in place then are smashed against each other. The brain may rip from the back of the skull and smash into the front. The muscles of the neck may tear in a whiplash. Each of these have both short term and long term effects.
Hospitals and doctors are equipped to evaluate and repair much of this damage. But the body is integral and finely tuned. Some damage takes time to overcome. Other damage is permanent.
Physical abuse such as a punch may cause trauma on a smaller scale: cuts, lacerations, bruising and internal injuries. If all we were dealing with was the physical, there would be little trouble. However, other effects of abuse are psychological, emotional and spiritual. The purpose here is to investigate how we are injured in all aspects of our being – not just the physical or the emotional but in ways we do not initially recognize. We need to recognize that when we are injured in one area, we also receive damage in other areas. The real long-term damage comes when those other injuries are left untreated.
Once, when I was about ten, a little girl about five or six, came up to me, punched me in my shoulder and asked, “Did that hurt?” What should I say? I said, “No.” She punched me again. I should have asked her if she wanted to hurt me. Then I would have answered “Yes.” After about the twentieth time, it did start to hurt. The point is that even little things add up and after a while, they hurt. Injuries are cumulative.
Obviously, there is more to say here. The reason I spend so much time on the Physical is because today, we have a fairly good idea what “Physical” means. Still, there is so much to learn. In the same way, God placed the same detail into the other aspects of humanity. We know so little about them because they are hidden from our view. The psyche is there, yet it is subjective. We can’t take an x-ray or MRI of the emotional (oh, you have a broken … funny bone.” “Yes, I see that your spirit is broken, let me put a splint on it so it will heal properly.” “We have completed the tests and confirmed that you have a broken heart. We will need to place you in traction for the next three years until it has mended.” Sorry, it does not happen this way. It is important to understand, each of the other aspects could develop an equally long list of how injury or trauma can occur.
Bad habits: Before I leave the physical, think of bad habits that can damage the physical: Beer and pizza every day as we watch TV. I think this is called the couch potato syndrome. It is not hard to imagine what these habits look like.
Smoking has its own symptoms. The crow’s feet around the eyes, cold hands, poor circulation: I went outside the other day during a cold snap. Several people were standing in a circle smoking. “Aren’t you cold?” One guy in a thick parka asked. “Not really.” It occurred to me later that he was smoking and one of the effects of smoking is the constriction of the arteries. Drinking shuts down the liver. General hygiene includes brushing teeth – now linked to a healthy heart.
Likewise, developing good habits prolongs life and improves or maintains general health. Walking, exercise, eating habits are to name a few.
As we investigate the other aspects of humanity, keep in mind that good habits and bad habits apply to these other areas of life, also.
2) Emotional