I have donated my blood every couple of months, most of my adult life. My type O blood is the kind that is suitable for use in stabilizing babies and small children as well as adults. Blood is an amazing liquid. It is the elixir of life without which there is no life, at all. It not only energizes the body, it beautifies it, as well, by making cheeks rosy. In color, it is a very bright red. I have wondered, why is it red? “Blood is red because it is made up of red blood cells. But, to understand why these cells are red you have to study them on a molecular level. Within the red blood cells there is a protein called hemoglobin. Each hemoglobin protein is made up of subunits called hemes, which are what give blood its red color. More specifically, the hemes can bind iron molecules, and these iron molecules bind with oxygen taken from the atmosphere. The blood cells are red because of that interaction between iron and oxygen. Oxygen is pulled into the lungs with each breath we take. The blood is circulated through the body, as it is pumped by each heart beat. It picks up a new supply of oxygen each time it flows through the lungs on its return to the heart. The earth’s atmosphere is loaded with life sustaining oxygen. When a person’s heart is pushing less oxygenated blood than it needs, that person will become dizzy and faint, or even die. We can only survive about three minutes without life giving oxygen. There are very few, if any, physical substances on this earth that are more vital to human life and survival than is our blood and the nutrition it transports through the body.
The human being is more than just physical; they are composed of both a physical body and a spiritual body. At some time during the incubation of the tiny body in the mother’s womb and the time of birth, the spirit enters that tiny body and it becomes a living soul. That spirit was sent to earth from the place it was waiting for its chance to gain a physical body, to experience earth. The spirit was waiting in that place where it was created from intelligent matter, (gnolaum, or eternal, Abr. 3:18) Our intelligence and our desire to learn and grow and our spiritual interests and relationship to God comes from the spirit. We were each waiting anxiously or patiently for our turn on earth, who knows that other than the Father. We each grew and matured as body and spirit in a world that can be both harsh and pleasant. Some are born to a beautiful place or a harsh place, possibly determined by some luck of the draw. To my knowledge, there is no explanation as to why we were born where we were. Many ask the question, “Why was I born in the United States of America. and another was born in a tin shack or a grass hut in an area of the earth where there is no clean water?” Someday an answer will come. Until then we must do the best that we can with the circumstances that we were born into. Happiness, sorrow, attitude about our life is an individual trial or blessing depending on what we make of it.
I have a younger sister, Terri, who was born about the time that I turned 16 years old. I left home when I was 18 so I barely knew her as a child and not at all as an adult, other than what mother said about her in her letters. When mother passed away in 1988, I inherited her box of pictures and old letters that she had accumulated. Included in that box was a page from my sister’s diary that was sad and very revealing about her life at the time. This was written when she was 16 years old. She wrote; “I feel sorry for me I have no close friends that I want to tell my troubles to, and I have no one I want to talk my problems over with. Maybe I don’t show it but I love quite a few people; but very few people show any signs of loving me. I don’t want to be me but I know of no one else I would rather be. Her next entry was; “Why are we here”? We are born, we eat, drink, sleep and play until we are old enough to go to school. After school we find jobs and raise families and then we die; Moving over for a new generation to go thru’ the same motions. We live only waiting for death and heaven. Work, marriage and other activities on earth are just time spenders.” Terri married, had three children and was divorced, she committed suicide when she was around 50 years old. She did find some happiness in life but her perspective of life and purpose was erroneous. We lived a long distance from Terri and our letters were few. She felt abandoned and I feel like one who abandoned her. I tried sharing the truth and purpose of life with my family but they would not listen. I am the only member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the family. They all seem to have respected me and my beliefs but would personally have nothing to do with it themselves. For me to be united with my birth family will be in the next life, the spirit world, where President Lorenzo Snow said that very few, if any, will reject the gospel there.