Interstitial Inspiration
by HB Lozito
Last Saturday, as my partner and I were driving up to Bellows Falls for a performance by the fabulous Toussaint St. Negritude, hosted by the fabulous Wendy Levy (now of the Rockingham Free Public Library), we listened to an episode of Radio Lab being broadcast on Vermont Public where they were talking about an organ within our bodies, the interstitium, and the process by which Western scientists recognized it only within the last few years.*
Here this incredible organ has been, since we have existed, likely within us the whole time and yet we’ve been looking past it, explaining it away and being wrong the whole time while doing so. While trying to understand how diseases spread through our cells, scientists finally noticed, in 2018, this fibrous tube-y structure that encased many of our vital organs. A miraculous structure that for centuries, was thought to be just a dense wall of collagen (nothing wrong with collagen! We love you collagen!) or most often outright disregarded by Western doctors.
The interstitium is fractal, made up of tiny tubes creating a larger organ that mimics itself as you zoom out, weaving a connected network that is everywhere throughout our bodies. The organ is itself supported by yet another complex and sophisticated network of other connective tissues. It absorbs shocks to our systems. Its interstitial fluid is a critical part of dispatching white blood cells, the community organizers of our biology, to fight infections. It is core to our existence.
The more we listened to the show the more I got thinking about LGBTQ+ people. And about us as the interstitium.
The interstitium has always been here. Known of course, to itself and to surrounding tissues but many people are newly cognizant of its brilliance. Our recent recognition of our dear interstitium has opened new possibilities, helped us understand ourselves in new ways, cracked open the wonder of the human experience, and begun to answer lifesaving questions.
Some of those who are just learning about trans and LGBQ+ people want to say that we are new but we know that we are ancient. Like the interstitium, we have we have existed since humans have existed. Our rural LGBTQ+ communities are held together by incredible networks of communication, mutual support, and strength. We are foundational to human life and society. Our existence opens new possibilities. We have always known each other and our brilliance is finally beginning to be known, seen, and felt by others.
We exist. Regardless of what anyone says, we are here. We have a value unto ourselves, not only as part of a network, not only in relation to how we support the whole, not only in our functionality but by virtue of our very being.
I, perhaps like many of you, have been feeling a bit run down by the ever present tide pushing against local, national, and global struggles for liberation lately. Reduced in my own imagining of what can be when faced with what currently is. Understanding the world through analogy while tapping into my own curiosity and sense of wonder are powerful tools for me in finding strength, inspiration, and energy to continue building the world we want to see; a world that works for all of us.
Thinking about these connections ignites my sense of possibility, which I need in periods like this one, where we are told that so much is and should be impossible. This connection with what’s inside of me and inside of all of us is helping me find my resolve this week. It’s helping me be at home within myself this week. So I can be at home within the world this week. It helps me remember that I am exactly who and where I need to be in order to imagine and participate in building where we’re going next together. Maybe it can do something similar for you, too.
Sending all of us, and all of our interstitiums, lots of love, strength, and power. We’re here to be in all of it together.
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*It’s very worth mentioning here, in my limited knowledge of Chinese and Ayurvedic medicines, that the interstitium plays a critical role in these systems of understanding human biology although it is known by other names. Relatedly, we are lucky to have an expert in our midst locally in Southern Vermont so if you want to learn more IRL you can do so from the brilliant Dr. Captain Lumenello. And here’s our Radio Hour episode with Dr. C. from 2019.