Thankfulness IV

I'm sitting up in bed with my laptop, awaiting a raging cold which is rapidly approaching.

You know the feeling well. Doom is knocking on your scratchy throat and stuffy nose. Plus I have two social engagements and two and a half hours of performing during the evening (singing on what voice?).

One would be entirely within one's rights to be moody, mad, complaining. Who could blame me for feeling a little put out?

But truth be told, I am sitting here feeling thankful. Yes, thankful.

Thankful that the odds are this cold won't kill me. Even if it's the beginning of a flu, the odds are still excellent that I will live (though there may be points when I will wish I was dead).

This is because of the subject of today's Thankfulness post...

Modern Medicine:

It seems almost trite to even mention it; as if anyone would disagree that we should all be grateful for modern medicine.

But until we (or people we love) are sick, we never think about how awfully damned lucky we are to be living in an age when a cold or flu is generally an unpleasant inconvenience rather than a plague wiping out whole countries.

We can anaesthetize, we can sterilize, we can recover. Good golly we can ease the pain of toothaches!
Think about that for a second. Have you ever had a serious toothache? Now imagine the days when there wasn't even aspirin to help deal with it.

Ah, aspirin. Ninth Wonder of the World (right after King Kong).

Yeah, I know. The health care industry is in shambles, full of greedy, corrupt and wholly ineffective jerks who care not one whit for the actual welfare of the Great Unwashed (and I believe all of that wholeheartedly) but that issue is about distribution and affordability; no one can argue about the advancements of the medicine!


Sure, modern advancements can be scary, and there are always a few crazy types who want to play God and end up doing some weird things...


But I am so very, very thankful for all the little miracles we have at our disposal that do not require insurance (reformed or otherwise), mad doctors or political strife.

Miracles like rubbing alcholol, hydrogen peroxide, Band-Aids, aspirin, Pepto-Bismol, NyQuil, Tylenol, Imodium, Vick's Vapor Rub, Luden's Drops.

Take a moment to consider your daily life without any of those things, and a million others besides. And realize there are still places in the world where it's pretty much like that all day every day.


And be very, very thankful you live where, and when, you do.