Yikes! So that's what's happening to me

Have you ever watched a show on television that was so depressing you changed channels, only to switch back to it because, depressing as it was, the content was mesmerizing?

I've often done that with scary movies. Not because they were depressing, but, well, because they were scary. I don't enjoy scary movies, especially the kind where somebody or something is hiding in a dark corner waiting to attack the idiot who insists on going upstairs ALONE to investigate the strange noise they heard.

I'll switch back and forth because I want to see WHAT happens but I don't want to see IT happen.

I'm more of an "Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein" horror movie type.

I've changed channels numerous times because shows were so boring - if I didn't fall asleep first.

Sometimes I change channels just for the sake of it - channel surfing, it's called.

I don't remember, however, ever changing channels because a show was depressing. I've thought about it and even asked others, "Why are you watching that? It's so depressing."

Not until earlier this week, that is. The National Geographic channel was airing a documentary entitled "Inside the human body." At least I think that's what is was.

I watched it off and on as it dealt with what happens to our bodies from birth to death. The early years were quite interesting.

As the body aged and the subject matter began to hit closer to home, so to speak, I began to think it not quite so interesting.

"The human body undergoes dramatic changes from age 40 to 70," I heard the commentator say.

Huh? At 56, I'm on the plus side of half in that age bracket.

For the next few minutes I watched, becoming more and more depressed, as the show explained in graphic detail how the human body begins to deteriorate.

The lenses of our eyes get hard and we need reading glasses. Our metabolism slows and more fat accumulates - men, surprise, surprise, in the belly and women in the hips. Our bones become brittle and break easily. Our skin loses its elasticity and wrinkles form.

It was about then that I had had enough. All of these changes were shown in microscopic detail with time lapse photography,

It's one thing to know all these things occur with age, but it's quite another to see it happen in a matter of minutes.

The show also described changes that occur on the INSIDE. Changes we cannot see.

That was even more depressing.

I lead a relatively healthy life and, while I cannot deny my outward appearance has changed quite dramatically in the past 20 to 30 years, I've been able to convince myself that my insides are still pretty much the same.

Not now.

No, the deterioration on the inside has been just as complete as the outside.

I decided enough was enough when the male subject on the documentary was lying on his bed dying, while closeups showed what was happening to all of his organs.

I changed channels and found a not-so-depressing football game to watch. It wasn't depressing because I didn't care who won, unlike a couple of other games I watched this past weekend.

My wife watched the entire "human body" documentary and after I whined about it being depressing and so forth and so on, she lit in to me.

"Knowledge is power. If you understand what's taking place in your body, you can take measures to deal with the changes."

Hmm. Now that I think about it, I have noticed a lot of bottles of various vitamins, fish oil pills, tubes and jars of lotions and all kinds of other items designed to keep one healthy and young-looking.

She, apparently, is taking measures. To each is own, I suppose.

In the past few days, I've been feeling all kinds of aches and twinges in places I didn't even know existed until I saw that show.

The flip side of the coin for that "knowledge is power" nonsense, is one of my favorites: "ignorance is bliss."

It is also useful to remember that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

Cody Sossamon (cody@gaffneyledger.com) is publisher of The Gaffney Ledger.