If you look at life from a past perspective and a future perspective it can really help out, I think a lot of times we don’t consider that and I mention how our ancestors didn’t have modern medicine and their average life expectancy going back a few hundred or even a couple thousand years ago they only lived to age 30 on average so they were used to seeing kids die and women die during child birth, I think that if we can go back and think about it from their perspective if you can fast forward into our modern day society they would just be amazed at all of the blessings that we have around including modern medicine…
THE 1, 2, 3
People have a fear of one of three things, the actual moment of death, possible pain and suffering in the time period before they die, or they fear the unknown of the afterlife, and if you break that down and address them individually it can go a long way.
For instance, when you talk about the actual moment, the heart stops, you pass out and that’s it, pain free.
Live, Love, and Let Go: A Doctor’s Insightful Approach to Living and Dying.
Since there are Dogs, There must be a God (Part 2)
The last blog discusses how a majority of philosophers do not believe in God. They also don’t believe in the existence of people having a soul. God and the soul cannot be proven. The concept of God is an extraordinary idea, which is far different from our everyday earthly experience. Since it is more straightforward for philosophers to take the view that there is not a God, then that is the standpoint that they choose to believe.
If not God, what do they believe in? …well, robots of course.
Since there are dogs, God must exist (Part 1)
Philosophy…the search for knowledge, the science of answering life’s great questions. One of those great questions is, ‘Does God exist?’
So what percentage of philosophers don’t believe in God? Any guesses?
Well, actually there was a study in 2013 where philosophy professors around the world were surveyed about their belief in God. The answer is that a staggering 80% don’t believe in God, including 70% who are atheist and about another 10% who are agnostic.1
The Gift of Healthcare
Wow! I was stunned. How easy it is for us to let ideas play in our heads; what may make sense at the time can eventually lead to our own detriment.
Case in point: My brother-in-law has been worked up for over the last year about Donald Trump running for president. He’s been maybe even more worked up since Trump was elected. Needless to say, he wasn’t thrilled when he found out his parents voted for Trump. In fact, he was so upset that he didn’t invite them for their customary Thanksgiving dinner gathering (despite living in the same city). Wow!
A Tale of Two Christmases
“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” This comes from Charles Dickens book, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, but it is also illustrative of the Christmas season.
Now at first glance, you may be wondering, ‘What the Dickens is he talking about?’
The fact of the matter is that Christmas can be the very best and greatest of times. However, Christmas can also be the worst of times. Christmas can be great in many ways:
- A time with family and friends
- Great food, drink, and parties
- Peace and love
All Is Not Lost…
They don’t make kids like they used to. Well, actually most of the times they do still make kids like they used to, but with science and technology advances they sometimes make kids in different ways that aren’t as fun.
What I really mean is they don’t teach and raise kids like they used to. Oh, there have been some great advantages to modern society. For instance, kids growing up are taught to try and end racism. There have been great technological advances. People are living longer due to both advances in lifestyle as well as modern medicine. Poverty still exists, but keep in mind that poverty is a relative term. Poor people in this country would be considered well off compared to people in many other countries and also compared to our ancestors.
Is He There?
People kept pointing it out to us, but we still couldn’t find it. “Do you see the white rock on the side of the near cliff? Well, just go up from there and you’ll find it…from here it looks like a brown spot about a quarter inch long, but up close it’s probably a hundred pounds.”
And lo and behold- there it was- we spied the mountain goat as it edged its way along the cliff. It dislodged a rock which fell a thousand feet below.
Eternity and You…
Eternity is a really, really long time. (Trust me, I’m a doctor.)
When I was in elementary school, it seemed like it took forever to get through the school year. The winter months after Christmas break were particularly tough to get through. To a little kid, some of those months seemed like an eternity, especially when we had to do gymnastics. (I don’t care what the coaches said; I’m still convinced that the human body wasn’t made to fly through the air upside down and backwards). Every day I went to school thinking I would break my neck and be paralyzed. Those were dark days to a little kid and they seemed eternal. (Who’d have known that 40 years later my childhood fears would come true when I was in a propane fire, went tumbling through the air, and knocked a disc out in my neck which caused nerve damage requiring bone graft and disc fusion surgery?… I wish I could go back and tell the coach that I was right.)
Difficult Times? Perspective to the Rescue
I’ve been seeing and talking to patients for over 25 years now. That’s roughly 125,000 patient visits. That’s well over one hundred thousand patient stories. Plenty of stressful lives. Lots of tear jerkers. Illness, injury, death of loved ones, work stress, financial disasters, legal problems, abuse and infidelity. Tons of life stories that at first glance it appears that life couldn’t get any worse. It saddens me that some of these people are truly so depressed.