No matter how fast or how far a person runs, the horizon will always be beyond them. This being the case, the real distance and depth of the horizon is inside a person, it is in their mind and perception…

A race I will always remember

Not too long ago, when I was still a little boy, I found myself running from my father’s village to my mother’s, and from my mother’s to another and to another, in the hope of catching up with something that was neither a ball, some other toy, nor a bird, but rather the point, the line where the sky seemed to touch the earth. We call it the “horizon.” That line, that “place,” first presented itself to me hiding right behind the trees to the left of my father’s house. I started out that day walking rather leisurely because the distance between me and the horizon seemed so short. When I observed that the sky had moved, or rather seemed to have moved further away, I hastened my steps. Then I noticed that the sky moved further and further away. Well, being determined to reach the place where the sky certainly touched the ground, I kept walking faster and faster until I found myself running.

I ran for quite a while until I realized that “there”, where the sky and the earth met, was still further away, that it would take me more time and effort than I had thought. I went back—I had to go back—to my father’s village, back to my usual village life because I saw that perhaps much more was involved, that maybe much more effort was called for in order to achieve what I desired, namely, to get to the point where I could touch the sky, where I could climb the sky. I went back to the ordinary, the normal life and experience of the village and of my people. But I did not tell anyone, I did not discuss the experience with anyone, even though I did not stop and could not stop thinking about it. I thought to myself that perhaps a week, a month, maybe a year would suffice for me to reach the place where the sky and the earth embraced. I was absolutely certain that right there in front of me, over there, not too far away, the sky touched the ground. And I thought that perhaps all I needed to do was keep walking, keep running, and keep racing forward, without stopping, without interruptions, without distractions in order to get to where the sky kissed the ground.

Today, thirty-five years later, I have realized that I was not wrong. I was right. The sky did touch the ground. It touches the ground all the time. You may ask “but where and how?” The sky touches the ground in our perception. Look across from your window into the distance. What do you see? Or, go outside and look in the distance. What do you see? The sky is right there, over there, touching the ground, the road, the houses, the trees, the mountains, the sea, and remaining there. But keep in mind that this is all happening in our perception. In perception, things are the way they appear, the way they seem. No rigorous, critical thinking is involved. And this happens so many times, and in fact is happening now; it happens every time that we are not thinking deeply, with attention and effort. It happens every time we fail to allow other perspectives, other possibilities and other possible interpretations to emerge.

The sky touches the earth, embraces and kisses the ground, right there in a fixed position, as long as you do not move. Once you move, it moves. And when you run after it, it too runs, not towards you though, but rather away from you. If you stand still, it stands still. If you stay where you are, it remains where it is. If you move even an inch, it will move. It will never allow you to catch up with it, to touch it; it will never allow you to possess it, to tame it; it will never allow you to take possession of it. And yet, it is always there, “putting everything into perspective.” By that I mean the horizon enables us to see, for without horizon one cannot see much of anything. Think about it! Everything presents itself in horizon. Everything dwells in the horizon, everything is within the confines of the horizon, and depends more or less on this phenomenon. And if I may borrow an expression from Saint Paul’s speech at the Areopagus (Acts 17:28) and be at liberty to use it as I see fit in this context (just as some scholars say he himself was at liberty to do with the same expression from the writing of Epimenides of Knossos (6th Century B.C.)), one can say that “that in which we live and move and have our being” is the horizon.

Standing still, remaining in one fixed position is not in the nature of the horizon. Its every stop (or what appears to be its end, its boundary) is temporary and transitory, like a pilgrim’s stop on a journey whose destination is still far away. It keeps moving, and it invites us to keep moving too, keep working, keep meeting people, keep exploring, keep digging, keep sowing, keep cultivating, keep harvesting, keep looking, keep reading, keep writing, keep thinking, keep talking, keep wondering.

We hear, not infrequently, the expression, “on the horizon/in the horizon.” What does it mean? It means in view, in the possible future, in sight. That which is in or on the horizon appears close, and seems to be approaching; it is as if it’s right there among the things that one hopes to do soon, as something squarely within one’s reach, among the things that one’s abilities can handle. What is in the horizon, then, is something that appears “present” and seems quite achievable.

What is a horizon? And what does it do?

A horizon is inseparable from a living, perceiving human being who is in the open or in the frontier of the open. There are no horizons in closed spaces, closed places. The distance between a living human being and the line where the sky and the earth meet is very wide. It is infinite. It is far, far away. You can only measure it with your eyes, your mind and your soul. You can figure out how long it is only to the extent that your eyes, your mind and your soul can go. An application of any other measuring device will only frustrate you because the moment you start going after it to measure it, it will recede. But the truth is that what you are actually seeing of the horizon is only a small part of it. The bigger part is on the other side of the horizon. Every horizon has at least two parts: a front and a back. The front of the horizon consists of the part you are seeing, and its back consists of the part hidden from you because of the hills and mountains, the earth, the road, the trees, the sea. In fact, the line where the sky seems to touch the earth is really only a perceived curve or a perceived point of contact, but the horizon really goes far and farther away, without end: it stretches into infinity.

All the things we are seeing are in fact standing in the way of the horizon. Similarly, all the things we are thinking right now, all our thoughts and ideas, everything that is presently on our minds can be an obstacle to a deeper and fuller understanding and appreciation of the horizon. We have to let go of all of these things in order to begin to have an idea of the depth and richness of the horizon.

For now, let us focus on the part of the horizon that is visible to us. It is a world, the world that we live in or would like to live in. Normally, it consists of people, people of different religions and/or of no religion at all, people of different languages and cultures, different experiences, different states and walks of life, different situations and aspirations, people driven by different desires, values and visions, people of very deep opinions, inspirations, beliefs and deep convictions other than our own, people heading in a thousand and one directions. This world, this visible side of the horizon also includes animals of many different types and habitats, which eat different kinds of food and have different spans of life. It also includes many different trees, bushes and flowers, and different types of grasses, etc. Mountains and hills and valleys too, rivers and big oceans, streams and creeks, are all part of this side of the horizon. Small and big houses, low and high buildings, shelters and palaces, mud houses and ghettoes are all part of this side of the horizon that we are seeing. But we do not actually see everything that we know is out there, that is all around us, that is over there in front of us…

How do we even know that there is anything out there, that other people are out there? A long walk, travels, meeting people, doing business with people, education, etc. confirm that there are other people out there, other lifestyles, other ways of thinking, other ways of doing things, other attractions, other things that people consider as very precious and worth dying for. We read about these things, have actually met and seen them with our own eyes, have lived with people of different orientations and values, have had some great opportunities to exchange ideas with them. But neither our reading and studying nor our investigative and explorative eyes can exhaust the visible side of the horizon because even the visible side has its own invisible aspects and invisible faces. Let us take for example persons, situations and objects.

From time to time, a person whom I have known for many years, not only surprises me, but also seems to be a surprise to herself/himself whenever s/he says something or does something I could never have thought or imagined her or him doing. And people of this nature are not uncommon.

How about situations? They are similar. Even the most familiar situations often have aspects that are new and different, which we can see if and when we look with more attention and care. And the moment we become used to these, even newer different aspects of the same situation emerge. The same goes for things such as books, clocks, chairs, doors, and so on. A book often presents us with information that we did not see the first time we read it. And if you read it again, you will again see something you missed the second time you read it. If you wish, you can read it again and again, and you will see something new every time. The book will never fail to make you see something new and/or think something new.

Can a chair or a door do something similar? That is, can a chair or a door make you see something new or think something new every time you encounter them? Let us see. A chair, unlike a book, seems to have no generative power. It seems mute and sterile. But can a chair speak and make us think? The answer is yes, it can speak and make us think. No one would disagree that the chair of Pontius Pilate, the chair of a Court Judge, the chair of Saint Peter, and so forth do have a powerful message. Although these chairs I have cited are special, every chair can say something to us and really make us think. For example, chairs for children and for adults make us think different thoughts, which by the way, make us give children appropriate chairs and to adults what is suitable for them. If we did not think differently of these chairs, chances are we would give adults the chairs meant for children and vice-versa, or give the same kind of chairs to everybody, children and adults alike, seriously compromising comfort. And some chairs would even fall apart (that is, if children’s chairs are given to heavy people like me to sit on).

Doors too make us think. For example, the Door of No Return in Goree Island in Dakar, Senegal, and the Door of Hope in Johannesburg, South Africa, makes every visitor think. But again, although these specific references are special, every door, including those that may seem unimposing and insignificant, can really make us think. Every door has a message.

The bottom line is that even the most visible side of the horizon can have aspects that may not be totally obvious and immediately accessible. Therefore, the visible, that which seems completely clear can still make us think because it often has layers, folds, dimensions, messages that lie beneath its surface. There are always other meanings, other messages behind the obvious. And the moment we finish harvesting one message, the moment we finish reading one meaning, the horizon presents us another one, and yet another, and so on and so forth. Inexhaustible indeed, this horizon can constantly give new meaning, hope, color, shape, style, texture, depth, taste and strength to our lives for endless joy and delight, even under very difficult circumstances. Why? Because the horizon has power to liberate us from the present, the immediate, the obvious. As it draws back, so to speak, that is, when we attempt to respond to its invitation into the open, when we dare to go after it, go with it into the deep, when we allow ourselves to move with it and flow with it, then it can open new doors, generate new ideas, launch new beginnings, reveal inroads, illuminate new bridges, disclose exits, uncover new faces, make terrains of other possibilities visible, make cooperation and collaboration possible, make teamwork possible, bring along other solutions, other fertile soils. With the horizon, there are no closed doors, no human being is a finished project, no done deal, no finished once-and-for-all discussions, no insurmountable barriers. The horizon’s open field stretches into infinity.

All of this is but an invitation to read between the lines, i.e., “to resist simplistic interpretations that dogmatically ascribe fixed significations to [things]” (G. Weiss, Refiguring the Ordinary, Indiana University, Bloomington, 2008, p.58).

It is about the need to go on researching other possible meanings and interpretations of a text, to go on searching for other possible answers to certain problems, to appreciate the expanding limits, and to devote more time and energy to the lifelong project of exploration of self and of the world (and of God) (see P. Okogie’s “Horizon: the birthing world” in the Journal of Horizons of Horizons, Vol. 1, no. 1, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, 2012, p.10).

Rev. Dr. Okogie is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Bioethics, University of Saint Anselm, Rome, Italy.

The Innocence Project, founded in 1992, at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University assists prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing. To date, 280 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 17 who served time on death row. These people served an average of 13 years in prison for different reasons like false eyewitness identification, coercing false confessions, withholding evidence from defense, or bad lawyering, before exoneration and release. (From www.dna.gov; www.ornl.gov; www.innocenceproject.org)

I find myself handing my cell phone to the officer at the entrance of the courtroom shortly after getting a speeding ticket after a call from my principal to get to school urgently. My kids are at school, my husband at work; I am all by myself at the court house. I sit at one of the back rows and start waiting. The announcement fills my ears : “People for traffic charges will be called by last name after a few trials.” Wait a minute… My heart normally does not beat this fast. Is it the woman they brought from the back of the room in the orange outfit with handcuffs? Is it her story that makes me so nervous? Or do I finally realize that I would soon get up in front of everybody and answer the frightening question: “Are you pleading guilty?” What am I going to say? I feel as though if I blinked twice, I would find myself in a movie. Is there a way out of this? I remember the radar in the police officer’s hand. He showed me the number on it. My heart starts to beat faster. I remember my friend’s husband going to jail for 3 days after a situation similar to this. A chill passes through my spine. Then there it is, my name. I get up. All eyes are on me. Here is the question. What am I going to say? The radar was wrong?

Suddenly, it feels like a thousand veils in front of me are being lifted one by one. I am dead. All the guardians, officers, and the judge are angels. The people sitting alongside me are other people died with me. The “big angel” is asking me if I did it. It is as if I am watching myself from up above. I hear myself saying, “Yes.” He wants me to come over to the podium and explain myself. I start walking. Everybody is looking at me .You can almost hear a pin drop. What a long distance to cover. It seems like I have been walking forever.

I stand at the podium. I start telling honestly and exactly what happened. On the other side is the police officer, the other “angel” who caught me and brought me here in the first place. The big angel turns his attention to him and asks about my records. The officer tells him I am a “plus one”.

What on earth does that mean?

Never mind. I guess that’s a good thing. After the big angel hears this, I am forgiven. Free to go… No handcuffs… My poor little kids, I can see them again!

I step outside. The cold weather hits my cheeks. I take a deep breath and tell myself to relax and come back to reality. Then I think to myself, what could be more real than death? Well, first of all, it happens every single day. Every minute actually, millions of times. The reality is that I will also die. I don’t know when and where, with whom and doing what. I just know for sure that some day I will die to be born into a new world, and that first, I have to answer questions. Is there a possibility of there being no questioning? If this beautiful country has rules and regulations, how can this universe being so big, crowded, sophisticated, and wonderful, not have any laws and regulations? Furthermore, how can you not be questioned when you do not obey them?

Maybe more than death itself, I am dreading the questioning part, millions of times more than that moment ten minutes ago when I was worried about that one simple question. My blood pressure peaked for a single traffic ticket. How am I going to handle answering and accounting for my entire life? Will there be an angel telling that I am a plus one? What a relief that would be!

I recall the story of a man who comes to Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and says “Who shall give life to decaying bones?” The Qur’an relates the story and answers: “He shall give them life who first gave them life, and He is All-Knowing concerning all creation,” (Ya Sin, 36: 78-79) drawing attention to the fact that making something the first time, creating something original, is much more difficult than making it after the plans are once complete and the outcome is seen. So, I start thinking, that when I die and I am about to answer for what I did with my life, God Almighty has the power to create the scene, the places that I shed my DNA at, and myself from a stain as small as a salt crystal and even smaller, and ask, “Did you commit that sin” right there and then?

What am I going to say? There is no possibility of God’s radar or cameras being wrong. I will most probably find myself saying “yes” just as I did at court today, confessing everything with utmost honesty. That is if I can speak under all that stress.

It is not only the “what I did” part that makes me nervous about answering questions, but what I “did not do” as well. I think about the past. Have I been using it wisely, or did I just waste it, for it seemed like it was something given to me for free.

I am a shy person by nature. It is not easy for me to get used to a new neighborhood, community, or school. How am I going to manage to go into a new world, see and live with totally new creatures that I have never seen before, like angels, spirits, and jinn. Contrastingly, I am wondering about what the other world is really going to be like. What is it like to not have any responsibilities, not having to pray or fast, wash the dishes, prepare dinner, do the laundry… ever?

At least I believe, the new world where we will all die to be born into, there will be no wrong guilty sentences. Everything promised from the beautiful paradise to the scary hell will be there. No wrongful convictions, no unfair treatment. But still, am I ready? Or is there going to be a time that I would totally feel ready? On the other hand, I feel like an ignorant person living in a humble home in a small village—a person who is invited to the palace by the King, to this festive occasion, with the most important people; a person who has a chance to receive precious gifts and drink the potion for eternity, but is still hesitating to go; a person wants to give a present to the King but is unsure whether she has anything to offer that would please him. Besides, wasn’t whatever this person took with her to the King given by the very King himself? When I prayed five times a day, didn’t I do it with the healthy body He gave me? If I made donations, wasn’t it with the belongings He handed over to me in the first place. It is as if for every good I did, I was paid beforehand. Then, even if I do whatever He asks me to do, I can’t be hopeful because of what I do. Rather, I would build my hopes on how generous, compassionate and loving He is, setting my intentions right with utmost sincerity.

There is one other reason that would make me eager to leave this world and go to the other side. It’s because of all those emotions, talents, intellect, and love—faculties of our body and soul which we are not and won’t be using in this world because of reasons like not knowing, not being trained, being too young, too old, sick, or just missing out on the windows of opportunities. Do they not need to get out? Aren’t they like the baby in the womb, squashed in there and wanting a greater place to grow? Seriously, what percent of my brain and heart am I really using? If God gave me more potential in them, it seems impossible to me that he won’t create a place that they will grow and flourish. And I can’t think of a better place to be when that happens.

…

Finally, I found where I had parked my car and the keys that always fall into the black hole of my bottomless purse. I head back to work. I missed first period, but I need to make at least the third to fulfill my plans. It is the time of the day when everybody is already at work. I’m lucky; there is no traffic at all. The roads are so empty. In fact, there are no cars in front of me on the spacious road. Suddenly, it becomes so appealing to me to go a little faster. Just a little bit… My right foot starts itching… Who would know at this time of the day, in the middle of nowhere anyways? Maybe just one more time…

Nihal Zeren Dila is M.S. in Microbiology and Molecular Biology, GMU, Science Teacher at Pinnacle Academy, VA.

Digestion in grain-eating birds

The digestive system of the chicken, which is a representative of the world of birds, is comprised of organs lined up in straight line succession: a beak, mouth, gullet, craw, front stomach (with gland), gizzard, small intestine, caecum, large intestine, cloacae and anus. In addition, enzymes secreted from the pancreas, liver and gallbladder also have digestive duties. Ending in a sharp point, the beak was created especially to be able to pick up single pieces of feed. Chickens do not have assisting organs like the palate, cheek, tongue or teeth that are normally found in the mouth, the first door of digestion in most animals. Ruminating animals like cows, sheep, goats and camels use the tongue instead of a beak for taking food into their mouths, and then their teeth are used to begin the breakdown of food. In chickens, however, this breakdown is initiated with the bottom and top beak. In ruminants there are taste buds in different shapes on the tip, sides and middle of their tongues which also function as the organ for the sense of taste. Since such taste buds are not found in chickens, there is also no perception of taste like that experienced in ruminating animals.

The structure and function of the gullet, or food pipe, has similar characteristics in chickens and other animals. However, just as in all birds that eat single seeds and grains, there is another digestive organ in chickens in the shape of a bag opposite to where the gullet expands. Called a craw, this tiny pouch is a place for the storage, wetting and softening of feed, and it serves the purpose of bringing food to the consistency needed for further digestion; consequently, it lightens the burden of the stomach (just like when we leave food that is difficult to cook, like chick peas or beans, standing in water overnight before we cook it).

A chicken’s stomach is composed of two different sections, the front stomach and the gizzard. The feed the chicken eats passes from the gullet and the craw to the front stomach, where digestive secretions are made. The food is stored here briefly and mixed with the special fluids of the stomach. Found in this secretion are both the pepsin enzyme, which starts the digestion of proteins, and hydrochloric acid, which is secreted to generate the pH level that makes this enzyme effective (and which also helps in the dissolution of minerals). These two important secretions are produced by different glands in the stomach. Like the craw, the gizzard, which comes after the front stomach, is the place where mechanical digestion, which is particular to all birds that eat grains, takes place. The gizzard is called the stomach with muscles because it is comprised of a pair of thick and strong muscle layers. As a result of these muscles constricting strongly, feed is broken down mechanically and ground up. While gathering feed, the chicken usually also swallows small pieces of sand, stone and limestone as if it knows how its digestive system works. Although many of us think that chickens swallow stones because they cannot distinguish them from feed, it is obvious that there is a purpose why they are doing it. If these stones, which are like “mill stones” for the digestive tract, are not found in the gizzard, the feed is not fully ground; consequently, it will pass to the small intestine in a form that will not be fully beneficial to the body.

Depending on its characteristics, the feed eaten can stay in the gizzard for a few minutes or several hours. The small intestine, which comes after the stomach, is comprised of the duodenum (twelve-finger intestine), the jejunum and the ileum. The small intestine is similar in grain-eating birds to those of other animals. The duodenum empties the secretions coming from the pancreas and the bile coming from the gall bladder. The digestion and absorption of the feed actually takes place in the small intestine due to these secretions. Final digestion and the absorption of carbohydrates and protein are effected by bacteria found at the point where the small intestine ends, in the 10-15 centimeter-long, V-shaped caecum.

The large intestine and the cloacae are found in the advanced sections of the digestive system. The role of the large intestine, which is twice as large in diameter as the small intestine, is to temporarily store the waste from the digested food and to maintain the balance of water in the body. The cloacae is a small orifice with a structure formed by the widening of the large intestine towards the anus and where the digestive, defecation and reproduction tracts open up.

While giving grain-eating birds the above mechanisms in order to nourish them, God equipped ruminating animals with different oral, dental, gastric and intestinal structures as well as different digestive strategies.

Digestion in ruminating mammals

While secreting saliva is essential for ruminating animals, it is not necessary for chickens because of differences in their digestive system. As a result of the secretion of saliva the fodder of ruminants is softened and dryness of mouth is prevented. Ptyalin (or alpha amylase), which is found in saliva, has antibacterial properties that protect animals from infections in addition to playing a role in digestion. The mother cows constantly licking their newborn calves is both an expression of compassion and also of wisdom in protecting the newborn from probable infections (Similarly, animals like dogs and cats licking their wounds and thus speeding up healing is no coincidence, but a sign of universal wisdom and mercy). This wisdom shows that saliva, of which cows secrete 90-180 liters and sheep 5-8 liters per day, is not a waste.

The stomachs of ruminants are comprised of four sections; the first three are the rumen, the reticulum and the omasum. These three sections are called the front stomach. The section that does the real work is called the abomasum. Because the nutritional value of grass is very low in comparison with meat, it is obvious that a large bodied ruminant will need a lot of grass. Consequently, the capacity of rumen being 150 liters is a wise and fitting design. In addition, the cellulase enzyme that digests the cellulose walls in plant cells is not produced in the tissues of any mammals. The possessor of infinite knowledge and power, God placed high concentrations of bacteria, protozoa, yeast and fungus-all of which can produce the cellulase enzyme needed to break down cellulose-in the rumen of ruminating mammals. The rumen acts as a fermentation factory because of these microorganisms. Breaking down the cellulose-rich food consumed by ruminants, these microorganisms both fulfill their own nutritional needs and help to meet the host’s energy, protein and vitamin (especially B12) needs within a symbiotic relationship. I wonder where the microorganisms in the rumen learned about this synthesis and assistance mechanisms!

What a magnificent engineering wonder is the “sulcus esophagus,” a semi-duct structure in the shape of a canoe that extends from the end of the food pipe in newborn ruminants to the abomasum where the essential stage of digestion takes place. Due to this structure, milk drunk reaches the last stage of the stomach without passing through the rumen, for there is no matter like cellulose in the content of milk that needs to be broken down. Consequently, there is no need for the milk to go to the rumen. If it were not like this, the milk would go directly to the rumen where it would be ruined by microorganisms, lose its nutritional quality and be like a bribe given in vain to the microorganisms in the rumen.

I have been positioned in the center of your face so masterfully and delicately that even my slightest displacement would cause your face to become disfigured immediately. You would lose your good looks if I were wounded or spoiled. It seems to me that after creating your whole face and body, God placed me very accurately so that I can be in perfect harmony with them, and even with your soul. We noses appear in countless shapes-slender, long, narrow, wide, flat, Roman (convex), sharp and stubby noses. In the past, some wise men used to comment on people’s personality by looking at the posture and shape of their faces and bodies. The different shapes of noses would give them ideas about the intelligence and the will power of each person. It is true that there is a relationship between my shape and your personality. However, it would be wrong for someone to claim to know all about you just by looking at my shape, since your other organs affect one another too; some can neutralize the effects of others. Moreover, discipline and education can change many of the characteristics of a person. So, do not judge people just by looking at their nose.

Anyway, since these are subjective matters, they are not our focus now. What I would like to tell you about is the objective truth about the delicate art and meaning in my creation. My Creator has designed me as a projecting organ on the head-and not only on your face, but also all vertebrate animals, especially mammals. I am the organ that is used most by animals to hunt for food, to feed, and to look for their young or their mate. I am placed at the front of your body, and like a detector I sensitively recognize smells. When animals find something new, they first poke me into it to understand what it is. That is why the idiom “to poke your nose into something” is used commonly among humans, meaning to interfere with something that does not concern one. Most animals use the sense of smell more than humans do. Since they do not possess the intelligence and consciousness of humans, they acquire some of the necessary knowledge to survive through their sense of smell. However, humans are given intelligence and consciousness, and so they are not supposed to “poke their nose” into everything. Of course, that does not mean that I am useless. On the contrary, I have many functions and a complex and meaningful structure.

In the middle of your face is my external component, which is shaped like a pyramid. Because it is made of cartilage, this part is quite flexible. My tip is beaked and there are plates on my two sides. The cartilage in my tip is connected to a bone in my upper part between your eye sockets. This bone, called the nasal bone, is a part of the main bone of the forehead. A cartilaginous bridge that is lined in the middle divides my nasal cavity into two nostrils which lead to the outside. The hard palate at my base also makes up the roof of your mouth. The soft palate that is behind this extends to the nasal portion of the throat (nasopharynx). During the act of swallowing, it rises and closes off the upper pharynx to prevent food and saliva from escaping from your throat and being forced up into my back. If, when eating, you feel tickling in your throat and cough, this palate cannot close off, and the food can lodge in me and come out of my nostrils. Another benefit of this system can be seen in patients and those who are about to have surgery, when their pharynx is closed off. In such situations, patients are provided with food, liquids and air via a tube which runs through me.

The journey of the air you breathe, which you have to do in order to survive, starts with me and continues as far as your lungs. The air that enters through my nostrils is not always clean and of good enough quality to enter your lungs. If low-quality air reaches your lungs, you will get cold, infected, and sick. To protect you from that, our All-knowing God created everything carefully, taking measures to ensure your well being. He has placed air-filtering hairs at the front part of my cavity, and He has covered the inner surface of my rear with a mucous membrane (mucosa) that has a fluid form. The structure of my cavity is quite complex. Along with my two lateral walls, there are three horizontal bone shelves called the concha (or the turbinate), comprising the inferior, the middle and the superior turbinates. These narrow, shell-like structures increase the surface area of my cavity and thus help to warm and humidify the air easily before it reaches the lungs. That is, the air you inhale does not pass to your lungs until it is conditioned and filtered by me. This process is initiated by the hair in my front part, which prevents the entry of dust particles. Then, the air passes through the curled aperture formed by the concha. The concha is covered by a sticky mucous membrane which produces a secretion. This slippery secretion, along with the cilia, traps smaller foreign particles such as the dust of coal, soot, bacteria or pollen. In addition to that, since the pressure inside me is lower than the pressure outside, I can easily warm and humidify the air that passes through me.

The sides and the surface of my superior concha are lined with a very special epithelium which has a role in the sense of smell. The smell receptors, which are the cilia cells, and other supporting cells constitute the olfactory epithelium for smell. Everything that releases molecules into the air has a smell of its own. Perception of a smell occurs in the brain as a result of a very complex chain of reactions. Indeed, I have no idea about how this process happens but people talk about several theories. Since the vibration and the structure of every molecule which reaches me through the air currents differ from every other, each molecule causes different chemical reactions and electrical impulses. The molecules that come through the air dissolve in the moisture which lies on my epithelium and they chemically stimulate the cells for smell. If my mucosa dries out and loses all its moisture in dry air, it becomes more difficult for the molecules to dissolve and for you to breathe. My sense of smell also weakens or gets lost in the event of a lack of the element of zinc, which normally exists in small amounts in your body.

There is a reason why the color, taste and smell of garlic are different than that of a rose or jasmine flower: it is because each creature is created out of different compounds, as if in a laboratory of its own. Therefore, the molecules that spread into the air from those different compounds and the impact they cause will naturally be different. Indeed, what is interesting here is the wonderful system which perceives each of the molecules of so many different compositions as a different smell, categorizes it, and stores its information in memory. Whenever I experience a new smell, by its composition and vibrations, I instantly figure out its difference from other smells. Then, I help to store it in the brain’s memory related to the smell so that I can recognize that smell if I come across it again. All of those functions in their complexity remain an enigma which is still being studied by physiologists of smell. Another wonderful attribute of my smell-receptor cells is the fact that they sense the smell very strongly at first and after a while, they are not as strongly stimulated as before, resulting in a temporary paralysis of those cells. Thus, a situation called “habituation” occurs, and this is an indication of God’s mercy. If God had not created this “fading” of constantly existing smells, the sewage, garbage, tannery or butchery workers would not be able to do their work.

The mucosa that lines my cavity can easily become swollen with blood and tissue liquids. During viral or bacterial infection, or an allergy like hay fever, my cavity might become blocked completely, which makes it hard for you to breathe. Infection of your upper respiratory tract causes me to run and get blocked. You know how stagnant water gets smelly and swampy, whereas running water does not hold dirt. Similarly, when I get blocked, bacteria reproduce very fast and get transmitted to other respiratory organs. That is why, when you catch cold, you must do your best to prevent my getting blocked. Hot, aromatic or spiced teas might help you, but the best thing is to pour a weak solution of saline (salt water) into your nostrils, which will clear the congestion. As for nasal drops, do not use them unless you have to, since they will cause addiction and other side effects.

Your skull also contains four major pairs of air-filled cavities (sinuses) at my sides behind your cheeks and above me behind the forehead. In the event of infection of your sinuses, inflammation of your tonsils, or the growth of polyps, my discharge becomes constant and turns into flu or chronic rhinitis. Besides that, if I bleed it may be an important first symptom of many illnesses. Many conditions, including high blood pressure and several illnesses with fever cause bleeding inside me. Indeed, bleeding from me in patients with high blood pressure can be seen as a warning and protection against serious conditions. If, because of high blood pressure, my blood vessel did not split, bleed and decrease the pressure, a vessel in your brain would split, which would result in a much worse scenario.

Peter, from now on, do not ever forget to give thanks to God when you smell a flower or anything else with a beautiful scent. Inhale the air deeply with the pleasant impression the scent leaves on your soul. Our Lord God Almighty, who has given you the air as a blessing, bestowed you with me as a filter to clean the harmful particles from that air. If He had not done so, your lungs would fill with soot and dust and they would fail eventually. You would not be able to sense the taste of food because the experience of flavor cannot be achieved by the taste buds alone. It is me that helps them to do that. For instance, a person whose olfactory epithelium has been ruined cannot tell whether it is an apple or a radish that he or she is eating. If you cannot sense the odor of the foods you eat, you will not be able to get their flavor, either.

Dear Peter, I think I have described myself to you sufficiently. I even support your spectacles for you! I have given you brief information without too much detail about my microscopic intricacies. While even one hair inside me cannot be placed by itself, do you think it is possible for me to have formed myself when I am equipped with thousands of intricate elements, each with a reason? Which sculptor, do you think, can make the nose of a sculpture, without a hammer and chisel in his hands and without a model and will in his mind? Other than the belief in God, there is no way of explaining my creation, which is a thousand times more splendid than the making of the nose of a sculpture. So, whenever you wash your face and look into the mirror, examine me carefully again and remember our God Almighty who created us out of nothing.

Irfan Yilmaz is a professor of biology at Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.

The history of family life can be divided into two phases: “before TV” and “after TV.” Its affects on the whole family are so immense that they are outside the scope of this article. Instead, we will concentrate on the affects of television on children, and especially on children under the age of 3.

During our interviews with parents, almost all of them had one question: “What is the effect of television on our child?” The importance of this question can be better understood after we have studied the effects of television on our children. The effects of TV depend on how much the children watch TV, their personality, whether they watch alone or with adults, and whether their parents talk to them about what they have watched. Therefore, it would not be true to say that television is absolutely harmful or beneficial. If the necessary precautions are taken, it can be a useful source for both the child’s educational and social development, while, on the other hand, it can have very harmful and lasting effects on children if not properly monitored and if the child is left to decide when, how much and which TV programs to watch. The effects also vary according to the child’s age. This magic box has different effects on children of different age groups.

The worst, and unfortunately permanent, effects of television on children occur during the 0-3 age group. This is because some of the psycho-social attributes that are acquired in these years persist in a person’s character throughout life. Any problem that originates from this period will affect the rest of a person’s life.

The Effects of Television on the 0-3 Age Group

During this period some parents do not (or cannot) spend enough time with their children for a variety of reasons, and they leave their child alone with the television. Some of the reasons for a lack of time being devoted to the child may be socio-economic factors, the life-style of a working mother, problems between the parents themselves, the necessity of housework, parents working additional jobs, a chronic illness in the family, psychiatric problems of the parents, the child being the product of an unwanted pregnancy, the child’s physical illness, or dozens of other reasons – all of these can affect family life. Because of these, intentionally or not, some parents often cannot pay enough attention to their child; the only thing they are able to do being to keep up physical maintenance (i.e., feeding the child and keeping him or her clean). In these cases, TV comes in and fulfills the role of the parents, and the child ends up spending too much time in front of the television.

Experiencing full emotional sensations and the complete attention of the parents sets the groundwork in the first three years of life for a strong and healthy psychological make-up. Physical contact, talking to the child, making him or her feel that he or she is loved, playing with the child, spending time with the child all have a positive effect on the development of the psycho-social side of the child. Spending time with a baby prevents him or her from becoming alienated in relationships with other people and helps him or her to recognize the social environment, starting with the parents. Along with this relationship, a close tie between the child and the mother develops. This relationship starts in the mother’s womb and continues during infancy. The child begins to be able to communicate and express his or her needs. As time goes on, the child starts to be able to establish a dialog with other people.

Since the basic foundation of communication is speech, children have to learn how to talk. In order to be loved by people, they have to understand people and respond to emotional stimulation. Children need encouragement in order to socialize and develop communication, especially from those who are in charge of the upbringing. This encouragement and approval, attention to the child’s needs (food, clothing, hygiene, safety, etc), paying attention to the child’s problems, spending time with the child, kissing, caressing, talking and playing with the child all go towards helping the child feel that he or she is loved; these constitute an encouragement for the bio-psycho-social development of the child.

The reason we mention all these is so that we can better understand the television-child relationship. When the child is left for a long time in front of a device that does not respond to his or her words, looks and smiles – a device devoid of sensual and social stimulants, without emotion – and when the child is deprived of physical closeness to the person with whom he or she has established close ties – problems will occur as time passes. Although television provides sounds and images, the child is not yet of an age to interpret, accept and benefit from these. The problems developed here will appear later in the form of an incompleteness or inadequateness in the socialization, individualization and the psycho-social aspects of this person.

Why is TV more harmful for children? The child will not have friends or a social environment to make up for the social and sensual incompleteness mentioned above. He or she does not play a role in an interchange, and the child does not have a chance to contribute. Psycho-motor and psycho-social sufficiency has not had a chance to develop and he or she does not have an alternative environment in which to develop.

If a child is less than 3 years old and stays too long (how long changes from child to child, but generally for more than an hour) in front of a television, and particularly if the parents have any of the problems mentioned above that prevent them from spending more time with the child, then some insufficiency and delay can be witnessed in the child’s psycho-social functions. These functions are those that are necessary for the development of social improvement (sensual interaction and responsiveness, adaptation to the social environment, taking an interest in people, showing sympathy to others, paying attention to other children of the same age, etc) and communication (talking, meaningful gestures and mimicry, spelling words out by syllables, perception, making sounds, forming sentences, etc). If such conditions occur, a child psychiatric must also investigate what other reasons may have caused such conditions. The replacement of time that should be spent with other people with time spent before the television has very serious drawbacks.

If the children stay too long in front of the television during this period, some psychiatric abnormalities may develop. The child may show symptoms of indifference to his or her surrounding, for example, he or she may not look around when called, the child may avoid making eye contact, or show indifference to other people and children of the same age, the child may experience difficulties in taking part in emotional or social communication, he or she may try to stay on his or her own, or may display repetitive behavior, like turning around or rocking back and forth, the child may become obsessed with objects, he or she may be slow to speak and construct sentences, or may display problems in establishing dialogue, or the child may be unable to respond sentimentally. Therefore, in order to prevent excesses, it would be appropriate for the parents to put a limit on television for the benefit of normal psycho-motor and psycho-social development in the child.

At the same time, it would be appropriate for both the father and the mother to spend as much time as possible out of their normal daily life with the child, playing with him or her, speaking to the child, showing the child that he or she is loved, showing an affinity with him or her, taking the child out, paying attention to his or her physical needs, paying attention to his or her normal growth stages, laying the ground for communication with other children, sparing some time only to be with the child, telling him or her stories. In short, parents do not have to ban television watching completely for their children, but the appropriate thing for the good of the child is to restrict and balance it with other activities.