Why Is There a Kidney Appliqued onto My Rokkaku Kite?

An interesting question generally deserves a thoughtful answer, at least that is what I think. There is a story here and it starts many months ago when I got a crazy thought in my brain, and despite my questioning the rationality of this thought, it persisted.

For all my adult working life I engaged in healthcare. Apparently, it is in my nature to help people, which I did throughout my career. I retired from working in 2015 and settled into not having to work for a living anymore. Then along comes the year 2024, and in my brain grows the thought that I miss the “helping other people” thing, which manifested itself with some soul searching and looking for the answer that would quiet by brain down a bit. Thus, the idea of kidney donation was born.

My research provided enough information for me to make a decision to proceed with the process, with the caveat being that I know I have a fairly small distal aortic aneurysm. The only way to find out if my local donor center people considered this a disqualifier was to ask them, which I did. The answer I got was “the surgeons do not want to touch you”, so there you go.

Prior to contacting the donor center I had made plans for constructing a rokkaku kite, and I thought putting a kidney on it would provide some openings to conversation on the flying fields. If anyone walked up to me while I was flying the rokkaku and asked what the design was all about, I could say “That is my left kidney” and so conversation could flow from there. The organ donation did not happen but the kite did.

If you understand the anatomy of the kidney and associated bits and pieces you will notice the yellow drifting towards the trailing edge of the kite. That is the the duct by which urine passes from the kidney to the bladder. The yellow organza was added to illustrate the dynamics of pee as it leaves the body. This structure in the air is something to see if the wind is blowing well. I call this kite “Pissing Into The Wind”.

Model image from a Google search ©TeachMeAnatomy.