The Six Million Dollar Man

I remember this show being on tv when I was younger.

The longest it could hold my attention was through the opening credits.  After that, the plot became too adult for me and I went back to listening to the episode of The Dukes of Hazard that I had recorded on my tape recorder the last time it came on.

I do remember that opening sequence and particularly the sound that was made whenever his bionic faculties came into play.  I also had the Steve Austin action figure.  The premise was that after the doctors were through with him, his body was worth six million dollars.

My brother and I play an extremely fun but terribly morbid and disturbing game.  I dream up body modifications for him and we negotiate a price that he would accept to undergo such modifications.

For example, I request that we surgically remove his nose and turn it upside down, nostrils up.  This is all done with the understanding that: a) life resumes as normal, there is no becoming a hermit and b) there are no adverse affects from the surgeries, everything will still function properly.  Can you imagine sneezing with your nostrils facing up?  Better close your eyes.

We come up with prices for a single year’s change or for the course of a lifetime.  The nose modification may only cost me $50,000.00 if done for a twelve month period.  If I want it done for life, however, it may cost as much as $20 million.

Something became apparent to me after playing this game for some time.  He really values his body parts.  We truly do weight the difficulties of the change versus the payout.  We approach it as though it were a real possibility.  This makes him certain that he gets what he feels the sacrifice is worth.

If I want to take an arm for life, he wants tens of millions of dollars.  A hand is still in the millions.  A thumb cam cost a full million over his lifetime.

I have asked our church folks during a sermon how many of them would sacrifice an arm or a leg for $1 million.  Interestingly enough, no one ever goes for it.  This tells us that we value our bodies to be worth millions.

Now here’s my point.

Everyday I hear folks talk about how their lives would be so different if only they had the right tools, the right education, the right upbringing, etc.  But if you are a living breathing human, you have a priceless tool that God has blessed you with, a functioning body with its very own supercomputer installed.

Given this fact, what’s stopping you?