Thought For The Day

I'm addicted to "This American Life" podcasts. I always miss the radio program on Friday nights, and was so excited to discover they have free podcasts of all their shows. I was listening to a show today entitled "Testosterone," a broadcast that I think women, especially the mothers of boys, should listen to. The opening act was a manly man who, due to some undisclosed illness, suffered a complete depletion of all his testosterone. He talked about the effect that had on his personality, who he was, or who he thought he was, and he said this:

"I grew up in a culture, like all of us, that divides the soul from the body, and that that is your singleness; that is your uniqueness, and nothing can touch that. And then I go through this experience where I have small amounts of a bodily chemical removed and then reintroduced, and it changes everything I know as my ‘self.’ And it violates the sanctity of that understanding. That understanding that who you are exists independent of any other forces in the universe, you know. And that’s humbling. And it’s terrifying."

I have to think on this a little longer to figure out why I find this so profound, but I instinctively love it. Maybe it's the neurobiology training, with all the study of brain chemicals, and learning how their deficit or presence can elicit emotions like fear. Or maybe it's that little bout with depression that I experienced, and along with that experience, the absolute understanding (and I was REALLY a skeptic) that depression is not anything other than CHEMICAL in nature, unlike what so many arm-chair psychiatrists think (that means you too, freaky Tom Cruise).

If you want to listen to the program, go to www.thislife.org and find the February 28th show. You can no longer download it, but you can play it on your computer!