Giving a Shit

Illustration from a Hebrew encyclopedia pairs the human interior with the interior of a house, a visual metaphor: the organs, like rooms in a house, have different functions. The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. Exhibited: “Dream Anatomy,” National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Md., October 9, 2002 to July 31, 2003.

The Jewish morning service in some synagogues includes a meditative blessing that “expresses wonder at the simple but necessary functioning of the human body,” wrote Arthur Green in a commentary for the Reconstructionist Sabbath holiday prayer book. “We do not need to stand before any greater wonder of nature than our own bodies,” Green continued, “in order to appreciate the intricacy and beauty with which our world is endowed. A sense of awe at our own creation…