All Aboard – Next Stop, Your Mouth
Remember sitting high, eye level with that magical spoon of mushy goodness, hearing “Chooo Chooo…Open up, Here comes the Train”. Remember embracing the journey with unmeasurable content or sealing those lips in pure horrid. I don’t, but I can guarantee it happened, so many times in fact, that it’s probably better off that I forgot. After a few rides you realize “this banana apricot mush isn’t half bad, keep it coming funny lady”. As I sat on the train this past week I decided to do something different, being present, paying attention to what was happening around me, understanding why people were here in the first place. Each passenger on this regional line had a final destination, eventually they would have to get off, whether they wanted to or not, there is no driving aimlessly waiting for your car to run out of gas – Although Mr. Kramer makes you wish you could.
Rail systems were one of the key pillars leading to that ever so important industrial revolution, but that was a long time ago, and they’ve since been overlooked by many outside metropolitan areas. Cars, SUV’s and Trucks are cooler, more accommodating and less smelly (or just have a personalized smell that you dont mind).
If your not up to speed on your “Freight and Cargo” shipping game it may be a surprise to hear that “Freight by Rail” is still one of the most efficient methods to this day. In fact many industrial factories and cities were build around rail systems to ensure they had ways to get the goods they produced out to the masses. I can clearly recall playing NBA Jam studying in my dorm room, alongside the Hudson river and hearing the long dull horns of the freight trains as they ventured North. One day during a “study break” we decided to count the cars, which was more time consuming than difficult, it seemed we could walk faster (even worked in a game or two). When it was all said and done there were over 100 interconnected cars.
I wonder how many boxcars and containers it started out with? How many stops it made? Where it was ending its journey? All questions that seem like a waste of good brain CPU, huh? When you think about it, that train is starting as a whole, at some origin station, packed up to the brims with goods for the greater masses, and with each stop a number of boxcars journey ends, only to start another. Containers are loaded from the train onto trucks, their trek continues, distributing goods across Regions, Cities, and Towns. These goods provide their recipients with the opportunity to sustain a good life, grow, and in many cases prosper.
With each stop on this generous trains route more boxcars and containers are filtered to their destination city, bringing goods to circulate their respective communities, allowing businesses to operate, food to be served and many leisurely activities to take place. How they got there and where they’re from is all irrelevant to the locals. By the end of this long haul, the train is naked, striped down to its bare bones, all the goods of value have been distributed to each city it chugged through. That final push into the train yard is accompanied only by empty boxcars and open container beds. Without this very solid infrastructure, essential good would not be able to reach the great people of the world, cities would struggle, maybe even starve.
Back to the Choo-Choo
Whether you realize it or not, that very entertaining (or horrifying) flying train of mush is a freight train at the very start of its journey. “All Aboard! The Trains leaving, Last Call, Trains Leaving”- (I know I know, have to work on my conductor voice). And as that food travels in dramatic fashion through the air, the first stop is in-sight, your mouth. Here, it begins to be organized, mixed with saliva, enzymes and your over-friendly molars. For the most part the train brings all its freight as it moves onward down the esophagus towards the stomach. To gain entrance, this (hopefully) nutrient-packed train passes through the esophageal sphincter(a door-like muscle at the entrance of the stomach) , it’s like returning a rental car, you drive over the spiked grooves but don’t you think about backing up! This muscle makes sure the train doesn’t reverse its direction unless the situation is dire.
Pathogen – bacterium, virus, or other microorganism that can cause disease.
Once through this doorway, the train is showered by some key digestive enzymes. If we’re being honest, security at the majority of origin train yards suck, more times then not nefarious individuals(pathogens) sneak their way on, looking to take advantage of a free ride or anything they can get in-between. Many of these freeloaders are taken out here, as goods are hosed down and prepped for there first city stop, the Small Intestines.
We’ve made it to the stretch with the most action, a winding track of cities await their goods. Each station equipped with the tools (digestive juice, mixed with bile and pancreatic juice) to extract cargo off the boxcars as the nutrient-train slowly chugs along. The walls of the small intestine absorb water and digest nutrients into the bloodstream. But before being allowed to circulate the city, all of the goods(nutrients) must pass through security (the immune system), they’re thoroughly inspected to ensure none of those aforementioned looters and thieves(pathogens) are sneaking their way through. As each item receives its “stamp of approval” from our internal customs agents, they enter the bloodstream where distribution throughout our bodies begins, keeping us operating and prospering. At the end of this city stretch, many of the goods have been distributed but the trips not over yet.
The Final stop is in sight (some may call it a light at the end of the tunnel), but not before three sharp right turns around the Large Intestine. All the remaining goods are distributed to the trillions of bacteria that call this incomplete rectangle their home. Your communities of gut-bacteria are a direct result of the goods you bring them, think of it like this: The last items left on the train are building supplies and demolition equipment. Your either building up your communities of ‘good’ bacteria‘ and destroying the bad or doing the exact opposite. Feeding your gut-bugs a diet rich in fiber will go a long way to ensure a prosperous town, with a community center, parks, library’s and thriving marketplace. Unfortunately, many people venture down the typical “western world” tracks of processed foods, and when you do this your gut begins to look more like a scene from The Walking Dead, constant chaos, towns on fire, a lingering cloud of smoke.
There it is, The Final Stop!
What a journey! We made it, from “Opening up for the Choo Choo” to well….coming out the other side. As the train pulls into its destination train-yard, all that’s left are the empty boxcars and container carts, striped of all their goods and cargo along the way. Who knew a simple ploy to get a toddler to eat would take us on such a trip! Depending on the shipments, the trip could be one full of energy and sunshine or cramping and murky skies.
It’s All up to You!
You have final say over all the packing slips at the origin station, Your the Engineer (bring a hazmat suit), You permit or deny any container of goods from getting on in your tracks. Can’t ask for more than that, make the investment in your railway, you’ll be using it for quite some time, take ownership and…
Put Yourself in a Position to Win!
