SIGHING AT THE FEET OF THE FAMOUS

Have you ever tried to bite your own teeth? That's how playwright Tennessee Williams answered my rather pretentious question: "How can we define ourselves?" We were sitting in the back row of the old Goodman Theatre in Chicago during a rehearsal of his play "Summer & Smoke."

You figure an artist with his insight would have had an answer somewhat grander. And yet the more you think about it, the grander his answer is. Just like when I had the chance to ask playwright Edward Albee how was it possible for him to have written such a mature play as "Delicate Balance" at such a young age. His answer was equally unpretentious: "I used to listen in to my parent's cocktail parties."

Did Belgian researcher Elke Vleminex have such perspectives in mind when she reported on her investigation of the human sigh...? In a comparably grand-less comment, she said, "A sigh is more than just a sigh. It changes our dynamics of breathing, and acts as a resetter of the respiratory system." In her comments to "Discovery News," she explained how under stress our breathing becomes less responsive to the need for more or less oxygen. But a sigh "shakes up the system, loosening up the lungs and allowing for more flexible breathing."

Another of those remarkable regulatory phenomena to the human species that invites -- insists -- on further reflection. Just as with the unpretentious explanations by Williams and Albee, Vleminex's explanation of the human sigh warrants more than just a nod and a note. Isn't it a delicious little curiosity as to what makes us what and who we are? Here circa 2010 the answer may come down to one of two: Darwin's evolution or God's generosity.

Then again, perhaps it's the two blended together in one cosmic recipe? Something to sigh over.....