the anatomy of a scab

Save for Wolverine, Clark Kent and perhaps Narda (Whatsersurname?), everyone must have had a scab at some point in their lives. No matter the size (piso, benchingko, diyes, etc.) or even the shape (before the thunderbolt scar, there had to be the thunderbolt scab eh?), people get cuts, burns and scratches thus, the scab.

The moment you break your skin in any part of your body, the platelets start working and stick together to glue the cut, giving birth to a clot. This handyman-clot acts like a bandage to keep more blood and other fluids from flowing out—bleeding you dead. If the clot is Helga (of Hey Arnold!), then fibrin is her Arnold, the stuff that helps Helga put herself together, despite her denials… (haha! What show of metaphoric genius…) When Helga the clot becomes hard and dries out, our hero—the scab—forms.

These scabs are usually crusty and dark red or brown and they make themselves useful by keeping away microbes and a gang of other microorganisms out while giving the underlying skin cells a chance to heal.

More than just a splotch of a scab, beneath the surface it speaks so much about life’s simple truths.

· a scab may look nasty, but one has to experience nasty things in order to get a fresh start—a fresh layer of cells

· a scab on the face may spoil your blemish-free visage, but surely that is not all there is to the person that you are

· no matter how difficult it is to resist picking on a scab, it is always better to leave it alone, some things have to wait, you can never rush the natural process of healing

· you can look at a scab as a transition phase: you do get hurt, but you try to keep yourself together, and you manage to come out intact, even with an add-on scar

· scabs serve their purpose in reminding you that you are vulnerable

· scabs don’t last forever, scars do (although technology does magic…), nevertheless, actual hurts should never linger, only the memory of the hurting remains…

· you may be a masochist, but when it comes to others, avoid rubbing salt on other peoples wounds

· after a scab, you get ready to become injured again, it’s not to say you never learn from your blunders, perhaps it’s only one way to dodge disappointments

So the next time you cut yourself… grab yourself a topical antibiotic before you sit down and wait to appreciate your scab in all its crusty glory. That would look weird…just make sure nobody’s looking…