I sighed and saw what remained on the table in front of me: a pile of bones, muscles, ligaments, and organs. They are signs of dissection, learning, and knowledge. At the end of the semester, the corpse still looks like a human, but it needs more to see. The doctrine he was given was done. He waits to restore to the body donation program for cremation. If the family chooses, the remnants will be replaced by them.
I have done several decades doing this: working with untouchables, working through successive surgeries to discover the structures that make up the body, and then reach the end. As much as I like this trip, I still wonder what all that means. The total sum of these parts? The body finds more people today and moves in deeper and deeper structures. We lost something along the way. What do we produce?
Ironically, this time in the semester often falls around Easter. For all the passages of the Passion that inspired so many people, I find yourself thinking the most about burial, the empty tomb, and the first freedom that the body of Jesus has lost.
If students are not here, the anatomy lab is completely calm. Just me and the person you're experiencing from the airflow system in the lab. I wondered about these corpses and the life they lived before their journey brought them here. I wonder who's waiting for their bodies, and I silently thank them for allowing us to ...