As I recently celebrated my 82nd birthday, the ancient idiom "If
you don't die with a question on your lips, what reason could
you have for going on with life?" has grown stronger in my
mind and emotions.
Some strong examples exist to be applied to the idiom. For
example, we keep hearing and reading about how the HIV
virus is spreading the wildfire of AIDS throughout many
nations although Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times
(May 30, 2006) says "(It's not certain that all died of AIDS,
because so few people are tested that the cause of death is not
always known)" Although HIV is a transmittable virus, what
disease does it cause? For example, no one, can develop the
infection of smallpox without having the smallpox virus nor can
anyone develop tuberculosis without the active presence of the
tubercle bacillus. These are both infectious diseases. AIDS, on
the other hand, is a syndrome not a disease, and I do not
know of a single illness that can exist only if you show a
positive HIV presence.
We keep reading how the risk of certain medication is great
because of a controlled study: i.e. the use of a placebo (an inert
substance). What is used as a controlled study, for example,
is if thousands of patients take a trial substance, and 40 people
on the substance suffer heart disease or a stroke, while only 20
people on placebo suffer heart disease or a stroke, that is
scientific proof of how dangerous the substance is. But
the "numbers game" and the "religion" of correlation-as-cause
grows. It grows because there cannot be anything that can
fulfill the two basic rules of scientific studies: 1) you have to
compare the same thing and no two people are alike (not
even identical twins), and 2) you have to control all the
variables that can affect outcome which is humanly impossible.
No one can know all the subconcious, unconcious and chance
incidents that occur all the time that can affect mood, physical
well-being, and a host of responses that can affect all of us.
We have to remind ourselves that there has never been
anyone like us, and there can never be (even though we'll push
genetic explanations). But our uniqueness and specialness are
not so special, since they apply to each and everyone of us
We keep hearing about global warming. Of course, there is
global warming (and global cooling). But the global warming
we are experiencing today and the carbon dioxide ratios to
oxygen levels are no different than existed millions of years
ago, before there were humans or animals on the planet. But
can there be anything more noble than saving the planet?
We hear about addicting substances. In over a half a-century
of work in this medical area, I have never met an addicting
substance. By definition, an addicting substance would be a
substance that if anyone used it, they would absolutely
become addicted to it. I know of no such substance. On the
other hand, I know of nothing to which a person, for whatever
reason, cannot become addicted (gambling, sex, marriage,
work, etc.).
There is a basic question each of us should ask ourselves in the
privacy of our own thoughts: Would I feel the way I do, would I
see the world as I do, would I value what I value, if I were
born to different parents, at a different time in a different
society? We are all products of and prisoners of our past. We
all need to remember: Thinking and reading are for the brain
and mind what exercise is for the body.
