We had biology test. I was fourteen, and the test was about the human skeleton. There was a question how many ribs we had. I didn’t remember if it was 22 or 24. Like so many others in that classroom I tried to count my ribs with my finger sliding down my ribcage. 22 or 24? 22 or 24?
When I got my test back I stared in disbelief at the answer I had written. I hadn’t been able to make up my mind and somehow settled for 23.
To make things worse, our biology teacher had told us that during her long career she had met pupils with the misconception that men was one rib short, since God according to one of the Creation stories in the Bible made Eve from one of Adam’s ribs.
I probably became one of these in her eyes. How else could I have come to the conclusion that there where an odd number of ribs in a ribcage?
4 comments:
Dear Désirée,
Interesting story and I wonder just like you why you wrote down 23 instead of an even number. Nice mistery, what do you personally think what could have been the reason? Were it your nerves, was it that you once have heard this version of the Adam and Eve creation? I wonder what you think.
Thanks for this interesting story, you always surprise us my friend, good work!
@This Makes My Day: Hello, my friend. You have some interesting questions, although I'm afraid my reply is rather boring.
I think I was simply nerves and forgot what it was supposed to be an even number. 22 sounded too few, 24 too many; this I remember clearly. I was stressed and if 22 is too small and 24 too big, 23 is the "logic" answer.
I laughed when I read this post.
Not at you or even your story but because I haven't thought of or heard this myth since middle school.
My poor little minority church was the only church in my home town that didn't teach this myth as fact.
My own broken rib is giving me a lot of pain and I wondered if the spirit of Eve wasn't trying to claim it, as I'm not returning my old girl friends calls:)
@Robert: Hello. Glad I gave you a laugh.
I would be very surprised if any church in Sweden claimed that men are a rib short. Especially since we are one of the most secularized countries in the world.
I think this misconception comes from parents reading the story about Adam and Eve for their kids, and the kids remembers this little detail and it later becomes a missunderstanding. I don't think even their parents claim this to be truth.
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