Saturday / The Anatomical Shut-Down

Playing "Playmobopoly": Monopoly plus Playmobil = BIG FUN. The big piles of money and deeds didn't make it into the photo this time.

Watching a train roll by on Saturday

Looks innocent: a mere bowl atop some books

On closer inspection: Richie Tracks. Three...maybe four days old. Yes, those are Cheetos.

Above is a selection of recent family goings-on. I love finding Richie Tracks.

I don't normally get involved in online conversations, unless my amazing and talented friends have shared something of their own (See: poem by Sarah Park, "Resolution").

But Richie linked me to this NPR story about an inventor who fell on hard times and ended up being homeless and severely beaten. He eventually needed surgery to repair prostate damage that was done during the beating.

One commenter posted: "How does kicking someone cause injuries like severe hernias and a destroyed prostate?"


I responded with The Anatomical Shut-Down. Please forgive the few instances of the dreaded all-caps graphic shout. I couldn't resist all-caps because the graphic shout also grabs the eye and focuses the attention:

"If one kicks the perineal area - as when wanting to injure a person as nastily as possible - one could absolutely damage a prostate. Prostate enlargement is the rule rather than the exception in older men, and the capsule is distensible only to a degree. Impact beyond that can cause it to rupture. Even minor trauma can cause infection, which can indeed destroy a prostate. A hernia is a disruption of the abdominal wall, allowing organs to peek through. Again, kicking could create such a disruption, especially in an older individual where the abdominal tissue has less resilience. Many people have anatomical weaknesses in their abdominal walls which may become loci for hernias, especially when stressed, as when kicked. I note these anatomical observations only to undermine any misinformed effort to cast doubt on reporting that is only tangentially medical and more social in its significance. Violence against the homeless is REAL and DEADLY. Question for Mauricio: Do you have a home? Have you ever been kicked while lying down on asphalt? I do have a home, and I have never been kicked while in a prone position. I have, however, have cared for people who have been brutally injured at the hands and feet of others. Like old men with normal-sized prostates, those who escape violent, sustained kicking without organ damage are the exception rather than the rule. Mauricio, instead of putting energy into fault-finding, please commit to TEACHING KINDNESS wherever possible."

So there. Out of character, but maybe it was the commentator's flippance regarding issues of violence against the meek, plus a sense of I-acutally-do-know-something-about-this. 

Very best to all, and teach kindness wherever possible!