SENSE AND NONSENSE

Obama used the phrase “Hope and Change” as his pre-election slogan. It seems to me that is the only way for our society to carry on into the next phase of our existence. Hope is what we wish for and change is the process that makes it happen. We build upon what we already know.

Medical science has come a long way since I was a kid back in the dark ages. I remember meeting a woman who seemed amazingly young for her “advanced”age. I was in my late teens and had never known anyone who looked as healthy as she did at the age of 60. Now many of my children and step-children are approaching or have reached that magical age of 60. They all look amazingly young for their age, according to nineteen fifties standards. They are still able to work and play hard. Some have sufferred through serious health issues and have recovered.

During the past seventy or so years , medical Science has bumbled their way through some horrific mistakes like the Thalidimide crisis and come up with healing substances such as penicillin and othet anti-bacterial medications; also anti-virals, anti-inflammatorys, anti- psychotics etc. They have developed vaccines to protect us against polio, red measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever and other horrible diseases.

The big killers used to involve heart problems. My uncle died at 36 because he had been born with “a hole in his heart” Shortly after they came up with the “heart lung” machine which made open heart surgery possible. Now half my friends who’ve slowed down because of blocked arteries (including myself) have had stents put in and we now can keep up with our fellow senior citizens. I have also put up with breast cancer (not fun but I survived) I can only say “Hurray for Medical Science!”