In-Class #5

THE SECOND SKIN

In class, during our reading of Eisenburg, we spoke about the “second skin” that humans like to put on. This “second skin” is one where we desire to put up boundaries and/or borders around us in order to be protected. You see this in a little child when they go to bed and all the lights are turned off and they are afraid of the dark – what is the first thing they do? They hide under their blanket. Or you see this in us running into a building for protection from rain or a storm. You see it in our religious institutions and the building of temples called “churches” where God “dwells”. You even see it in us wearing clothes. We wear clothes because we are ashamed of our nakedness. We desire and need these boundaries as part of our human nature. We have an innate desire for them. I think that this second skin is something that is very unique and interesting of human nature. It is evidence of us having been born into Adam and having the sin nature that came when death entered the world and infected everything, including man.