Hello friends,
Recently, I read an essay in Orion Magazine about the interstitium. The author, Jennifer Brandel, describes the interstitium as “a fluid-filled superhighway spanning the entire body.” She briefly summarizes what scientists are learning about this system.
“The structure of the interstitium is fractal; it exhibits the same pattern at various scales. It’s unified. While scientists had seen glimpses of this mesh-like network before, they had not realized that it connected the entire body — just underneath the skin, and wrapping around organs, arteries, capillaries, veins, head to toes. It’s juicy. It moves four times more fluid through the body than the vascular system does. The fluid isn’t blood, it’s a clear and ‘pre-lymphatic’ substance, carrying within it nutrients, information, and new kinds of cells that are only just being discovered.”
I encourage you to read the whole essay. Brandel discusses how Western medicine is finally finding the language to discuss something that Eastern and alternative medical practitioners have known about for millennia. She talks about how the awakening of Western medicine triggered an awakening of her own. The interstitium can act as a metaphor for all the people of the world who act as bridges and intermediaries. Brandel says she sees these people everywhere now; she calls them interstitionaries.
The interstitium, Brandel says, is a “conceptual skeleton key.” It can unlock a different way of seeing the world. It reminds us that everything is connected, and that connection itself is worthy of our attention. At the end of her essay, Brandel asks, “…how can we activate and apply this new word, interstitium, to harness its meaning and power beyond biology?”
There are many ways to answer that question, but the best way I know how is with a poem. Shocking, I know. Anyway, here is my take on the interstitium.
The in-between is the everything if you stop and think about what it means to be part of something beyond ourselves, beyond the endpoint of you and me. All the magic happens in the connections between things. Focus on the negative space. What hidden shapes appear? Can you see the glint of buried treasure from the corner of your eye? We're floating in an ocean of bottled messages waiting to be read. Hush. Listen to the white noise of this space we're in. Cup the seashell to your ear and hear the ocean calling, bursting with all the stories tossed into its depths. Everything is connected to everything else. Somewhere, someone is straining to hear the whispers. The between-things cling to each other like light scattered through fog, everywhere and nowhere all at once. If you stand very still you can feel the mist kiss your skin like a memory of something you have yet to experience.
Until next time,
Yardena
WEEKEND POTPOURRI:
Currently on repeat:
“Aubade” by Yuki Tanaka
Wholesome Alert: Manny Machado surprised a bunch of elementary school kids and gifted each of them a bike.
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