100,000 Miles

By Jesse Eric Whitehead

Karol whistled as she peered at her laptop. “Hey, fun fact, honey. It’s 100,000 miles long.”

Andy looked up from his tablet, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Thanks for the compliment, dear.”

“No silly, not that,” Karol snorted. “That’s more like 100 millimeters. Maybe less. I would know.”

Andy slumped his shoulders and feigned a disappointed look. “Hmmm…well okay then. Do tell me.”

“The human circulatory system,” she continued. “You know, veins, arteries, capillaries and all. If you laid them out flat in a straight line, they would stretch for 100,000 miles. Can you believe it?”

“That’s crazy,” Andy said. He furrowed his brow in thought. “So…I think it’s about 25,000 miles around the world at the equator. That means there are enough blood vessels to wrap around the world four times. A nice red ribbon on an earth-sized package.”

“Or nearly halfway to the moon,” Karol added.

“Wow, yeah, it’s amazing that all those thousands of miles of blood vessels fit inside our bodies, doing what they do to keep us alive and functioning every day,” Andy said.

“You know I believe in science and natural processes for the evolution of life and everything,” mused Karol. “But sometimes I wonder. Are we really a result of mere chance and random changes over millions of years? A cosmic accident? Could there be something more intentional? Like a master design?”

“What do you mean?” Andy asked. “Are you saying it’s God?”

“I mean, look at the complexity of the circulatory system, and that’s only part of our intricate biology. You studied biology in school like I did. It almost seems too perfect sometimes, too well-designed to be the product of random chance alone. It’s a mystery–a miraculous mystery, I would say. Can you see that?”

Andy frowned. “I see what you’re saying, but you know I don’t believe in God, or miracles, or any of that stuff. Religious myths are not for me.”

“Well, me neither,” replied Karol. “But think about it. What if there is something more than we can see, measure, or understand? Maybe some sort of intelligent designer, whether it’s God or something else. Arguments can be made for natural evolutionary processes and intelligent design. Or maybe something in-between.”

“I more likely believe we were created by ancient aliens than God,” chuckled Andy. “Maybe the aliens were God.”

Karol gave Andy a playful punch in the shoulder. “Looking at you, I can believe it,” she snickered. “You do have an extra-large, bulbous, shaved head. Kind of alien-shaped.”

Andy rolled his eyes and grinned. “Haha, very funny! But you know, my cranium has to be big to fit that extra-large, super-advanced brain of mine. A brain that tells me I’ll never know everything about the mysteries of life. But right now, my brain is telling me one thing: that I really need to kiss you.”

Karol giggled as her thoughts turned 180 degrees. She could put deeper philosophical questions aside for now. But she couldn’t help but marvel at the miraculous intricacy of the human body. And how her human body turned to mush every time she kissed Andy.