Monday, August 26, 2002

Sick Swedes CNN has an article on the increasing percentage of Swedes that are "sick." Well, yes, they are sick. Offered paid time off and guaranteed jobs for any manner of disabilities, Swedes are calling in sick by the hundreds of thousands, many for over a third of a year. This on top of five weeks of government mandated paid vacation. As a healer, I am interested in seeing people better able to handle the stresses in their lives. Yet, when the government guarantees anything, suddenly there are millions of customers. People will, rather than do the hard work of self-growth, drive themselves into self-inflicted illnesses. Human behavior always follows what is rewarded, and getting paid not to work is a big reward for a lot of people. Now these benefits take up 16 percent of the national budget of Sweden, already one of the highest taxed countries in the world. Have you ever noticed that many people who are suing in court over an injury do not get "well" until after the suit is settled? I don't have any scientific data on this, just an observation, but there seems to be a high correlation between ability to heal and the extent to which we hold others accountable and seek compensation (or retribution). I would propose that after settlement, if the claim was that there would be a lifetime of suffering as a result, we "lock ourselves" into that self-fulfilling prophecy. 4:34:31 PM       While working for an organization that delivers lunches to elderly shut-ins, I used to take my four-year-old daughter on my afternoon rounds. She was unfailingly intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers and wheelchairs. One day I found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass. As I braced myself for the inevitable barrage of questions, she merely turned and whispered, "The tooth fairy will never believe this!" 4:17:53 PM       This Is Good The story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up.  The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"   One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition.  The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king.  The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation, the friend remarked as usual, "This is good!"   To which the king replied, "No, this is not good!" and proceeded to send his friend to jail.   About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of.  Cannibals captured him and took him to their village.  They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake. As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb.  Being superstitious, they never ate anyone who was less than whole.  So untying the king, they sent him on his way.   As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend. "You were right," he said, "it was good that my thumb was blown off."  And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened.  "And so, I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long.  It was bad for me to do this."   "No," his friend replied, "This is good!"   "What do you mean, 'This is good'? How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?"   "If I had not been in jail, I would have been with you." 12:38:26 PM       Relax! Aging puts stress in perspective [Reuters Health eLine] In a large survey of US adults aged 25 to 74 years of age, just 8% of young adults said they had even one stress-free day in a given week, compared with 12% of mid-lifers and 19% of those over 60. Egads. If only 12% of the people in mid-life have one stress free day a week, we need a break! <wink> 11:32:39 AM       One day the first grade teacher was reading the story of Chicken Little to her class. She came to the part of the story where Chicken Little tried to warn the farmer. She read, ".... and so Chicken Little went up to the farmer and said, "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!" The teacher paused then asked the class, "And what do you think that farmer said?" One little boy raised his hand and said, "I think he said: 'Holy Shit! A talking chicken!' 10:34:27 AM       The Work of the Chariot. "When a man takes one step toward God, God takes more steps toward that man than there are sands in the worlds of time." 10:14:08 AM       Leonardo da Vinci. "As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death." 10:13:40 AM

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