For the past week or so, my attention has been focused on my navel.

That’s not because I was absorbed in philosophical analysis of the bloody events in Pakistan. I haven’t spent much time trying to decide whether I should exult over the rubbing out of an arch-villain or mourn the loss of a human life. Osama bin Laden is history; I’m willing to leave it at that.

By the way, have you been wondering why the mission was assigned to a team of Navy Seals when the target was a long way from blue water? Well, since 2008, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command has been Vice Adm. William H. McRaven. Did you think he’d turn the job over to the Army’s Delta Force? And guess which aggressive, swashbuckling president ordered the formation of JSOC? None other than Jimmy Carter, a Navy veteran whose minions ran into helicopter problems en route to liberate the embassy hostages in Iran.

But let’s forget about naval affairs and get back to navel affairs. In the swirl of media coverage of the  Seals’ successful raid at Abbottabad, many of us may have missed some intriguing information about our navels, and I thought I would draw it to the attention of my readers.

For example, did you know that your navel may be the congenial abode of a bunch of bacteria? And have you ever determined whether your navel is an “outie” or an “innie”? And what is  the shape of your navel? These are serious questions — so serious that a team of scientists at North Carolina State University focused their intellectual attention on answers. The team is headed by Jiri Hulcr, who is not a naval admiral but a navel Ph.D., functioning as a postdoctoral research assistant. Since my navel is right out there where I can see it, I decided to turn my attention in that direction.

I was almost grown before I realized that the prominent dimple in the middle of my abdomen was called a navel. I had always known it as my “Yankee shot.” I was born 72 years after Appomattox, and there were still some old fellows with scars in their bellies left by Yankee lead. Much later, having forgiven the Yankees their trespasses, I began using the euphemism “belly button.”

So have you contemplated your belly button recently?

The first thing to determine is whether you’re an innie or an outie. If you're an innie, your Yankee shot, er, belly button, sinks inward. If you’re an outie, it pokes outward.

Postdoc Hulcr tells us that 96 percent of the folks his team studied claimed they were innies. I don’t know whether that makes the outies members of a special elite or brands them as anatomical outcasts. I will say that I’m a definite innie, and so is Miss Peggy (I sneaked a look while she was sleeping on her back). Nevertheless, I would be opposed to any kind of discrimination against outies. The N.C. State team says there’s no way you can decide whether you’re going to be an innie or an outie. It’s a decision too heavy for a newborn babe to make on its own, and besides, it all depends on how you were attached to your mother via the umbilical cord.

Since it’s not your fault if you’re an outie, I would be firmly opposed to any law requiring people to show their belly buttons when stopped by an officer of the law or when interviewing for a job or when attempting to enlist in the military.

A study at the University of Missouri showed that the ideal belly-button shape from an aesthetic standpoint is “a small, vertical, T-shaped navel with a little flap of overlying skin.” If  you’re not blessed with such a shape, you can correct the situation through surgery. It’s called “umbilicoplasty,” and you don’t have to say it to have it done. Just tell your cosmetic surgeon you'd like a navel operation to change the shape of your belly button. Just be sure he doesn’t misunderstand you and call for a “naval operation.” The Navy Seals’ assault guns leave holes much larger than Yankee shots.

Having a proper-shaped navel is especially important these days, given the popularity of low-rider jeans and high-rider tops. I remember once admiring the midriff of a young woman, strictly for academic purposes, and suddenly realizing that her belly button was not in view, although her jeans were uncommonly low-cut. After closer study, I realized that her top came down just far enough to hide it from view. I concluded that she was an outie who had not yet undergone umbilicoplasty.

But the most unsettling news to come out of Raleigh is that the navel may be home to a colony of germs. They apparently are drawn there by lint, which makes a comfortable bed for them. Karl Kuszelnicki, an Australian researcher who surveyed nearly 5,000 people about their down-under lint, concluded that you’re more likely to collect germ-drawing navel lint if you’re an older male innie with an abundance of body hair.

My main conclusion from his research is that he can have his job.

Fortunately, navel-dwelling germs are generally not the smelly type that migrate toward the armpits. But some of them do give off an aroma. Hulcre says unwashed belly buttons may smell like dirty socks.

Fortunately, you don’t have to do heavy scrubbing to remove them. All you have to do is take a shower.

So I have a key question for all you older, hairy, male innies: Have you showered lately?

If you haven’t, do it now, before the Navy Seals get wind of you.

Write Gene Owens at 315 Lakeforest Circle, Anderson SC 29625, or email him at WadesDixieco@AOL.com