Liver

I mentioned in a previous post that the liver is an altruistic organ. It's true if you think about it. It detoxifies the crap we shouldn't put in our body, it packages lipids (calories) for the periphery, it makes glucose for the snooty and picky brain which won't touch lipids, it handles excess ammonia from other tissues, nevermind what it does for alcohol. It puts up with all the metabolic pickiness of the other organs. And true to form, if you take that analogy to it's logical conclusion, any purely altruistic organ (or person) is going to get walked all over. Drink too much? The liver takes the hit. Eat too much? The liver jumps on that grenade as best it can, too. Hell, even when it's hurting, it's a wallflower not wanting to draw attention to itself. It's not like if your lungs hurt. You KNOW when those hurt. Liver? You'll pick it up on a physical, maybe. Or you'll pick it up only when it's severely damaged. The liver should stand up for itself once in awhile. Meanwhile , it strikes me that the intellectual brain is probably the most selfish as it needs glucose and will maintain oxygen perfusion at all costs, even to the detriment of other organs (come to think of it, the kidneys and heart do, too, those greedy bastards!). But it's also the one that determines if you're dead (it ain't liver-dead that makes you dead, it's brain-dead that's dead-dead so I guess it can justify it's self centered view. I've got a lot of time to think on my commutes to and fro school. Hey, it's better than cursing at the reject who just cut me off.