X-Ray Abundance

X-Ray Insights

Personal insight can come from many ways. Those “ah-ha” moments occur without our permission, but we have to be paying attention or we may miss them. Usually a great new perspective or a head-slapping moment happens when we least expect it, but I hope you are having some in your life. They are one of my favorite experiences. Sometimes I find out things I really didn’t want to do or want to know, and sometimes it can save a life.

I’ll use x-rays as the example of those light-bulb moments in our lives, since most of us make a discovery when the x-ray is show to us. We find out something we could discover no other way, unless you have x-ray vision. Enlightenment about something we need to learn can be like this. Where we were looking through a glass darkly once, the true reflection of the experience then becomes crystal clear. I’m pretty rambunctious, and once when I was a teenager I broke my own hand by striking a two-by-four. I thought it was padded, but when you hit solid wood with the side of your hand, you may break the upper joint of your little finger. It’s not excruciating, but it really, really hurts. You could probably still drive a car, but you wouldn’t be happy about it.

I was convinced it was broken, but try as I might, I couldn’t convince the parents to get it x-rayed. When you are fourteen, your options are limited. You can’t drive yourself to the doctor, and even when you get there, no one is going to x-ray your hand because you say it hurts. But after two weeks of moaning and groaning, I finally wore them down and into the x-ray machine my hand went.

The doctor looked serious. It made me kind of happy, because I was thinking I was right. “It is broken he said,” and I thrilled at the proof. But it was short lived. He only paused momentarily and continued, “It looks like we’ll have to break it again since it had started to heal crooked.” I instinctively grabbed the injured hand and declared it had been feeling much better later. After a short consultation, we all decided it could continue to heal in an un-straightened, un re-broken way and there wouldn’t be a problem. It’s still bent, but I can tell when it’s going to rain.

It’s quite an insight to find out you were right; the hand was broken, but another interesting insight to find out you suddenly don’t want it fixed.

Another x-ray provided not such a happy insight. I’ve explained before that I often have sinus problems which vexed my doctor until he took an x-ray of my head. He was as surprised as I was to discover I have extra sinuses, which extend beyond the usual eyebrow portrayal you usually see in those sinus headache commercials. I have extra sinuses as in they extend almost to the top of my head. It was a great moment of insight for both of us, since extra sinuses could be an explanation for my almost continuous sinus congestions, headaches and infections.

But again, sometimes an insight is not such a happy discovery. He was all smiles and excited, like he had discovered another branch of the human species, “Homo Sinicus”. But the more I thought about it the less I liked it. He looked at me and exclaimed, “This explains what’s been going on with your sinuses” as if I was cured. But all I could think about was the limited space available in any head. There’s room for sinuses and there’s room for brains. Apparently, I needed more sinuses than normal, which means I have less room for brains. It’s a sad day when your doctor tells you in a round-about way that you have a smaller brain than everyone else. But it does explain much of what has happened in the rest of my life. Next time I am pulled over for a speeding ticket, I’m going to try the “less brains” defense. “Sorry officer, but I have a smaller brain than your average driver, so…” It might work.

The best x-ray in the world was the one which discovered the cancer in my wife’s ribs. She had been experiencing pain she thought was cracked ribs, and when the doctor said it was probably cancer, both our lives changed forever. Two surgeries, chemotherapy, hair-loss, hair regrowth and the passage of fifteen years has found her in official remission. She was brave; I was scared, but we both survived. Better than an x-ray, these insights discover our determination, direction, and our weaknesses. Now that we have a new truth in our grasp, what are we going to do about it?

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