What's Inside of You

The purpose of this email is to provide something provocative for dinner table conversation. Please print and share.
Dedicated to the memory of Stessi Boyd, who passed away this week. (To dedicate a future TT, send an email.)

 I was speaking this week to a man who can be described as follows:

- Graduated at the top of his class from a top university
- Married to a wonderful, caring woman
- Has great kids
- Has a great home to live in
- Is depressed because his income doesn't match his image of "successful"

Question for your table:

What can you tell a guy like that to cheer him up?

I suppose you could ask him to watch this inspirational video of the guy with no arms and no legs:

And then watch this one:


Or you could ask him to read this note from a friend of a friend who is in medical school:

So as you may know, a large component of our immune system consists of specialized cells which can recognize cells of the body which have been infected (perhaps by a virus) or are doing something faulty (i.e. a cancer cell) and terminate them. These are colloquially called "Killer T cells." It's amazing how the body makes them.

First some background on the process. All cells in the body put pieces of the proteins they are producing on the outer surface of their cell membranes. These are presented on the surface by a special "carrier protein" called MHC. Try to envision a cell of your body, with thousands of MHC molecules on its surface, and each MHC molecule is holding a small piece of a protein that is being made inside the cell. Killer T cells recognize these MHC-protein complexes. If the protein is "self" the T cell does nothing; if the protein is "foreign" the T-cell binds to the cell and induces a pathway that results in cell death.

What's amazing is that T-cells have the ability to recognize self vs. non-self. This is created via "T-cell selection." Immature T-cells go to the thymus (located just above the heart) to learn this ability. At first, the body makes T-cells of amazing variety, in fact this number is estimated to be 10^18. That number is beyond comprehension. Essentially the body starts by making a T-cell that would bind to and destroy a molecule of any possible shape.

But we must ensure that mature T-cells only bind and kill cells with MHC bound to foreign objects. The first part of this process involves the T-cells attempting to bind specialized cells covered in MHC molecules. If the T-cell binds to the MHC molecule, it survives; if it does not bind to the MHC molecule it is tagged for destruction. About 90% of the billions and billions of immature T-cells die in this process because T-cells which do not recognize MHC are useless. The second stage of selection occurs by having the T-cells interact will specialized cells which produce random proteins in all parts of the genome and which put these proteins on its surface via MHC molecules. If T-cells bind to the MHC-protein complexes, they are tagged for destruction and if they do not bind they survive because we do not want T-cells which bind to and destroy cells which are producing "self proteins." Another 7-9% of the original T-cells die in this process. Only the select few make it out of the thymus and enter the circulation on the lookout for invaders.

The structure of the thymus is specialized so that no foreign objects may enter. This would be disastrous-- we would program T-cells which thought certain foreign proteins were "self" and could not defend against these foreign invaders. Of course sometimes mistakes (such as in autoimmune disorders) are made but it is amazing that we have a system that provides protection against foreign molecules of essentially any imaginable shape. The body is even protected against molecules which do not exist, but could in theory exist."

Wow. And that's just a tiny slice of what is amazing in this wonderful world we live in.

Question for your table - The Talmud declares that wealth is not measured by how much you have but by how satisfied you are with what you have. Sounds good on paper, but how do you get there?


Shabbat Shalom


PS - Speaking of a wonderful world, check out this rare recording of Satchmo - and try not to smile:



MyPhone app: http://tinyurl.com/amazingcalendarlink
Android version: http://tinyurl.com/amazingandroidcalendar
Bar and Bat Mitzvah gift suggestions at bestjewishkidsbooks.com (a service of JSL).

Penny For Your Smile...

You know those old photos that people have, of their great-grandparents? Where no one is smiling, because that had to sit frozen for 20 minutes?

Ever wonder what they were thinking?

Ever think about what goes into a smile?

Let’s think about this. What makes you smile?

When you think of soccer, does it make you smile?

How about baseball?

Let’s say someone loves playing baseball so much, he puts all his energy into it and works his way up to the Major League. Do you think –that- would put a smile on his face? If not the money, at least the fact that he's playing MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL?

Everyone's talking about this recent study from Wayne University, in Michigan.

Using photos of Major League players, and controlling statistically for all kinds of factors, they discovered not only is a smile an indicator of longevity, but even the type of smile. The players with the broadest, happiest smiles lived the longest.

Here's a summary of the study.

But I have a question that the researchers didn’t ask. Maybe you could get me an answer from your dinner table tonight.

How could someone be playing Major League baseball and NOT be grinning ear-to-ear?

(Jewish wisdom: True happiness comes not from what you make of yourself, but what you do for others.)


Shabbat Shalom


“War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, keep out of the way till you can.” - Churchill

PS: Know someone (including yourself) who could use a smile-boost? Try one of these books:

smilebookforkids
smilebookforadults
smilebookforallages


…and if none of those work, try this:

Blindness

Thank you for all the good wishes on the birth of our daughter Tehila Yehudis.

There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated life and everyone except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her.

She told her boyfriend, “If I could only see the world, I will marry you.”

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend. He asked her, “Now that you could see the world, will you marry me?”

The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn’t expected that. The thought of looking at them for the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.

Her boyfriend left her in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying: “Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine.”

This is how the human brain often works when our status changes. Only a few remember what life was like before, and who was always by their side in the most painful situations.

What’s the antidote to this kind of blindness?

+ + +

Try this: before you complain about the taste of your food – think of someone who has nothing to eat.

Before you complain about your husband or wife – think of someone who’s crying out for a companion.

Today, before you complain about your life – think of someone who left this world too early.

Before you complain about your children – think of someone who desires children but is barren.

Before you argue about your dirty house someone did not clean or sweep – think of the people who are living in the streets.

Before whining about the distance you drive – think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet.

And when you are tired and complain about your job – think of the unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your job.

When depressing thoughts get you down – try smiling and being thankful you’re still alive and still around.

Shabbat Shalom



A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. - Churchill