Conjoined

Saw a fascinating Natgeo feature on conjoined twins and the surgeries they'd had to separate their bodies.
The one that stuck out for me was a case of a set of American twins whose torsos were fused. The heart of one of the girls lay 3/4ths inside the rib cage of the other and they were sharing the same liver. The doctors thought that they had a good chance of separating the two without major permanent damage.
Needless to say, the girls were absolutely the cutest things that ever lived. They'd spent the earliest months of their lives facing each other, separated by mere inches. Talk about getting in your sibling's business. Talk about twintuition.
Anyway, so when the surgeon opens them up, everything seems to be going according to plan. The livers are divvied up and they turn their attention to shifting one of the twin's heart back into its own ribcage.
That's when they find that the two hearts are connected by a single nerve. The nerve is sending the same signal to both hearts, making them beat as one.
The doctor has no option but to say a little prayer and cut the sliver that's joining the two vital organs. He severs the connect, the hearts still and Natgeo takes a dramatic pause with a dramatic voice-over. Close ups on the faces of the other doctors and nurses. And then...
The hearts begin beating again. But no longer together. They pulsate in alternating rhythm, still harmonious but now very, very separate.

Homebound and brimming

Been at home for two weeks now. No new project and plenty of time to do as I please. Had me two marvellous experiences...

The first was reading Saeed Mirza's book 'Ammi - Letters to a Democratic Mother' and the second was watching the 2 hr Nat Geo special on the online films collectively titled 'Hometown Baghdad' (http://chattheplanet.com/).
Both are intensely personal and human takes on national and global events and neither allows us to remain cocooned in the safety of war-stats and newspaper headlines.
These are throbbing, pulsating and REAL accounts of the horrors of what man does to man. There are no fingers of blame being pointed. Just mirrors being held up. Look, they both say, look - this is happening all around you and but for the grace of God, it could just as well been you. Or me.

And then we have young people who think it's 'too hot' to go out and vote. It's the bare minimum we can do...