Bone of my bone

First, it was soft on the outside. And soft on the inside. (In and out. Out and in.)

Then it was hard on the outside, soft on the inside.

And, ah, now it is hard on the inside.

This is not merely a provocative conundrum. It is a brief history of the evolution of bone.

Let's bone up on this natural history. Before 600 million years ago, life existed in the form of single cells, soft, solo afloat, or perhaps gathered into colonies. Then, very quickly, over the next 70 or 80 million years, something breathtaking to the bone occurred. In what is called the Cambrian explosion, evolution accelerated, and the diversity of life forms increased at an unprecedented rate.

No one can know for sure what happened. But there is bone-fascinating theory. You see, mineralized exo-skeletons appeared in the fossil record about 550 million years ago. This very successful change is considered by some theorists a bona fide cause of the amazing proliferation of life forms. Some theorize that it was the prior enhancement of predatory creatures that called into being this new defensive form.

Creatures with exoskeletons abound in the world today. These are our arthropods: the insects, arachnids and crustaceans. So alien to us mammals, they appear to be bad to the bone. But no matter how squeamish we might feel about their barbarian being, there are definite advantages to the possession of an external skeleton. These creatures are protected from various and sundry in their environment. They retain water within, anywhere. They are a definite design improvement.

But there are also design disadvantages. Arachnids have to shed their external boniness to grow, which is a highly vulnerable process. And there is a limit to their size, which also limits their neuron capacity and life span.

So, we go on to the next even more wonderful life form realization. The rigid organ of bone finds its way inside. The endoskeleton is born. Vertebrates, animals with the bone inside, possess even greater advantages. Their articulated endoskeletons provide mechanical service through facilitation of movement, support, and protection of organs; synthetic service through the production of red and white blood cells; and, metabolic service by storing minerals, fat, and growth factors, balancing pH, and detoxifying. The bones in the ear even help us hear.

Make no bones about it, the arachnids and the vertebrates are the most successful forms of life on earth.

They do not need to lie full length upon the ground and shimmy from slimy place to place. Only their feet touch the ground, and then only make periodic contact with the solid earth. That gives a tremendous advantage for locomotion. Do you realize that all flying creatures on this planet have either exo or endo skeletons? This great evolutionary revolution just tickles my funny bone.

I hope you do not have a bone to pick with me when I point out how we hard bone inside vertebrates have managed to figure out how we can have our bone in and out as well. We desire in our bones to maintain the arthropod advantage. We create armor and tanks and bomb shelters, safe rooms underground and bulletproof vests.

But more bone chilling are our more subtle, internalized exo-armaments.

We have learned to wall off, to exoarmor our minds and hearts. We have built the capacity for estrangement and deceit. We have taken a stance of domination, of separation, over and against fellow creatures. And we have even armored ourselves against ourselves, repressing our beauty, anesthetizing our wisdom, choking our compassion.

Inspired by the Cambrian explosion, we can make lemonade out of the lemon of our continuing imputation of the predatory. We can realize that our defense only makes us more vulnerable to that mere mirage against which we defend.

To live our evolutionary advance of the living bone that is our internal state of support, we must awaken to our essence, the bony bedrock of an adaptation that will continue to grow.

Allowing our strength to be within permits us intimate contact with the other life forms that abound, whether like us or different, outside or inside. Our being can mingle, can inter-be. As we recognize all we perceive as bone of our bone, our hearts can soften and our wisdom can widen. We can dance, feet gliding over the earth, free. Or we can fly, our bones empty and weightless, ushering in a new era.

— Rx is the FloridaW eekly muse who

hopes to inspire profound mutiny in all

those who care to read. Our Rx ma y be

wearing a pir ate cloak of in visibility, but

emanating fr om within this shado w is

hope that readers will feel free to respond.

Who kno ws: You may e ven inspir e the

muse. Make contact if you dare.