Category: Random Thoughts

Each illusion is a choice.  Each illusion has its toll.

Recently, my wife and I spent a few days in the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado.  As we were driving back home, just about the only radio station that would come in clearly was one broadcasting from Farmington, New Mexico.  I wish I had been listening more closely so I could be a little more accurate in what I am writing.

Anyway, the station broadcast a commercial for some medical healthcare providers.  Since I am not 100% certain who the advertiser was, I am gong to make up a name – Four Corners Medical Partners.  Although the name is fictitious, the rest of the story is true.  The commercial emphasized how the staff of the Medical Partners could assist with lifestyle changes to improve a patient’s health, as well as provide necessary medical care and treatment.

The tag line of the commercial, to the best of my recollection, was:

“Remember, your good health begins with you and ends with Four Corners Medical Partners.”

I am afraid that is too often the case in the insurance-driven, profit-focused medical system that is the norm in the U.S.A.

Year of the Sheep – 2015

We are about to begin another year under the Chinese (and other Oriental cultures’) calendar. This will be the year of the Sheep or Goat or Ram. The first consideration, then, is which animal is the correct one for the year. There is no easy answer to that question, however.

As I understand it, in Chinese, symbol for this year’s animal is , which is pronounced “yang.” It is used for either a sheep or goat as it literally means a ruminant animal with horns on its head. Within that category are several wild animals and two which are domesticated – the sheep (mianyang or “cotton yang”) and the goat (shanyang or “mountain yang”). A ram can be either one, so that term is sometimes used to refer to this year. In Japan, there are separate characters for “sheep” and “goat,” and this is clearly the Year of the Sheep in that country. There are also separate characters in Vietnam, where this is unmistakeably the Year of the Goat.

It is confusing for us Westerners. For this discussion, we will refer to the coming lunar year as a “Year of the Sheep.” Most people know that the years in the Chinese zodiac cycle through twelve different animals. Additionally, each of those animal years cycle through affinities to the five elements – fire, earth, metal, water and wood. This will be the Year of the Wood Sheep, which occurs every 60 years. In 2015, the new year begins with the full moon that occurs on the afternoon of February 18^th in the United States, and the morning of February 19^th in China.

In this post, I will be making some predictions as to what may occur during the next year. I am not holding myself out as having any extraordinary psychic powers. I am no more or no less psychic than you are – and that is true whether you are Suzy Skeptic who does not believe in the existence of anything “paranormal” or you are the world’s top psychic or astrologer (whomever that may be be at the moment).

The approach here is to assume that there are historical cycles such as those recognized by the Chinese zodiac, and then look at what has occurred in previous Sheep years. With that historical perspective, we should be able to extrapolate and predict what may occur during the next few months. That approach has been remarkably accurate in the past. I do admit that I was wrong in my prediction for the 2014 Super Bowl, but it was because I ignored the data. Anyway, since that game involved the Seattle Seahawks, I feel we can just “pass” on that here in 2015.

Sheep are docile animals which gather in herds and are basically friendly and trusting. They present a completely different kind of energy than the wild excitement of the horse during the past year. Accordingly, the world should be a little more peaceful and there should be at least a semblance of international cooperation in the months ahead. Sometimes, though, the herd instinct brings people or groups together that do not naturally belong together and problems can result.  Continue reading “YEAR OF THE SHEEP – 2015”

Colds, Flu Shots, Ethics and Things

I am in the process of recovering from “the crud that is going around” – which is also called the common cold. There is also a lot of flu this year, but the virus I have had is not the flu. I have been through the real, and potentially deadly flu, and I can remember what it feels like after all these years.¹ Beyond that, I am protected because I have had the flu shot.

I didn’t have the shot this year, or last year. I received the vaccine in about 1985 or 1986. I have not felt the need for a flu shot since then; and I have not had the flu since then. Nevertheless, I have been thinking about colds and flu this week, and I am writing out some of those thoughts in a fairly summary fashion.

A. Can you catch a cold from being out in the cold? I have read from time to time over the years that doctors say that going outside in cold weather or with wet hair is NOT a cause of the common cold.²  Rather, the various cold viruses are said to be quite contagious, so we catch a cold through contact with someone else who already has it. My reaction has always been: Why do you think they call it a “cold,” then?

It seems those doctors have not been listening to the name “cold” and have not been paying attention to the research. Doctors have also told us for many years that most of the cold viruses (and there are many types) are not very contagious.³ We are exposed to them all the time, but do not become ill until the conditions within and around our bodies make us susceptible.

That is only partially true. The rhinovirus, which is the most common cold virus, is easily spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes, though it does not cause illness until it enters a body through the nose or the eyes and spreads from there to the lining of the nose and throat where new “baby” viruses are released or “shed” until overcome by the immune system. Infections occur in about 95% of the people who have the rhinovirus in their noses, though only some 75% develop cold symptoms.⁴ Those conditions arise frequently enough that adults normally suffer between two and five colds each year, while children may have as many as ten.⁵

In a very simple experiment, researchers at the Common Cold Centre in Cardiff, UK, had 90 students chill their feet in cold water for 20 minutes and found that those students had twice as many colds over the next five days as a control group whose feet were not chilled.⁶ Is anyone surprised? More recently, a team led by Akiko Iwasaki of Yale University infected mouse cells with a rhinovirus and determined that the host cells produced less interferon – which aids immune cells in fighting the virus – when they were colder.⁷ This would indicate that resistance to such viruses decreases as the weather turns colder. Again, is anyone surprised?

B. Can vegetarians use the homeopathic alternative to the flu shot? Since my experience is that a flu shot is effective for at least 30 years, I don’t see why anyone would avoid the shot. Of course, I wouldn’t take it every year, or even every ten years; but “one and done” seems satisfactory. There are people who avoid the shot, however. Instead, many of them resort to homeopathic remedies, the most popular of which is Oscillococcinum (“Oscillo” for short), manufactured by the French company, Boiron. It is sold in more than 60 countries, with more than $20 million in annual sales in the United States alone (and it is much more popular in Europe).⁸

Oscillo was created by a French military physician, Joseph Roy, after the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1917. He microscopically examined the blood of flu victims and thought that he saw a strange type of bacteria that consisted of two balls and seemed to vibrate and to increase and decrease in size. Because of that oscillation, he called the organism “oscillococcinum.” Roy had studied homeopathy so he tried to find some other source of that strange organism to use to treat the flu. Somehow he found it in the liver and heart of the Barbary or Muscovy Duck. In 1925 he began preparing a homeopathic remedy using duck liver and heart extract as its basis.⁹

Although Oscillo is celebrating its 90^th anniversary this year, there have been relatively few scientific studies of its effectiveness. At least some of the studies that have been conducted have found that Oscillo does work to reduce and shorten flu symptoms.¹⁰ Many people take a dose weekly during flu season to keep from catching the flu at all, but I am not aware of any studies as to whether that is effective.

Since I don’t eat meat, I have felt that Oscillo is not an appropriate remedy for me. That would seem a reasonable conclusion except that Oscillo is sold as what is called a “200C” homeopathic dosage. That means that each molecule of the duck extract is mixed with 10⁴⁰⁰ molecules of water, and then infused in sugar crystals. In other words, all that is really there is sugar.

Based on that information, Oscillo is probably as free of meat as any substance there is. One would be more likely to find a duck molecule by dipping a thimble into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. With that dilution, the extract from the first duck killed in 1925 should have been sufficient to supply every person on Earth at least until the Sun expands and destroys life as we know it in a few hundred million years. Nevertheless, it is my understanding that Boiron kills more ducks each year, so I will still avoid it.

There is a homeopathic cold and flu remedy called “Alpha CF,” manufactured by Boericke & Tafel that seems to be vegetarian from its inception, and which some people have found effective.

C. Can those who are opposed to abortion ethically receive a flu shot? A serious issue in contemporary medical ethics is that various vaccines, such as that for rubella, are manufactured from viruses that were cultivated using tissues produced through the cell line of aborted human fetuses. To anyone who is opposed to abortion, the moral repugnance to receiving such a vaccine is obvious.  Continue reading “COLDS, FLU SHOTS, ETHICS AND THINGS”

Time flies when you are having fun, and here it is time for another break week.  I will pick up my keyboard and try my hand at writing again, but it will be a week or so.

The Chinese have just finished their celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival.  I think I will munch on a mooncake and sit back to see how the new solar flare affects us here on the Earth and Moon.  I will get back to writing in another week or so.

I have been working the past few weeks on a high school alumni “hall of fame” project.  It started me thinking about what should be recognized in a hall of fame.  Should it be actual fame, even if that means notoriety?  Should it be accomplishment, even if that occurs in private and the general populace knows nothing of it?

Many readers don’t realize that the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York has inducted such people as Nestor Chylak, Jr.; Hank O’Day; Bid McPhee; John H. Lloyd; and Michael “King” Kelly.  Those are hardly household names, but they all contributed to the sport of baseball.

There are many ways to be famous.  Andy Warhol famously said that in the future everyone would be famous for 15 minutes.  That does not include me, however, because I am going to be on break during that quarter hour.

Singer-songwriter Jesse Winchester – one of my all-time favorites – left this world on April 11, 2014.  He was diagnosed with esophogeal cancer in 2011, from which he recovered.  His passing was the result of bladder cancer.

I included several of his songs on the baby shower play list I posted last November, and I was fortunate to have seen him in concert at that time.

I received the following email from my friind Rudy Spano:

Year of the Horse – 2014

The new moon of January 30-31, 2014 marks the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Horse, which comes every 12 years; and more particularly the Year of the Wood Horse, which is celebrated every 60 years.  This Year of the Horse will end on February 18, 2015.

Although I am not an expert in Chinese astrology and am no more psychic than the next person, I am continuing my tradition of looking back at what has occurred in previous Horse years as a basis for extrapolating what might happen over the months to come.  Past predictions have been quite accurate, if I do say so; so let us consider the upcoming Year of the Horse.

In China, as in much of the world, the Horse is seen as a noble animal whose strength, speed and stamina have greatly benefited mankind.  Horses have been used extensively in agriculture, have been ridden into countless battles, and been utilized in the more recent field of equine therapy.  Still, they are sometimes headstrong, stubborn and unpredictable animals.  Speaking from personal experience, anyone who has spent much time around horses will have probably been thrown, kicked or bitten a time or two.

This implies that the coming year will be a good one for personal growth.  The universe is there to help each of us – provided we take the initiative.  Even the best horse is not going to saddle himself or begin to pull a plow without human impetus. This is a good time for individuals to look at the patterns that have developed in their lives and separate those that are beneficial from those that no longer serve their interest.  The outdated ones should be cast aside or completed, as may be appropriate, while the beneficial ones should be “ridden” into a brighter future.

The thought of a wood horse also brings to mind the image of a carousel.  This is a year in which any of us could simply be carried along, going up and down and round and round – or we can grab the golden ring the universe is holding for us and move on with our lives.

In Horse years, people tend to take impulsive actions.  Many of them are fun and good experiences for development, but to benefit from the cosmic help that is being offered it is important to know where you want to go and guide life in that direction.  Left to make its own choice, many a horse will simply turn and run as fast as he can back to the comfort of the barn – especially at feeding time.  Anyone who lets that happen will have wasted what could have been a positive and productive year.

A metaphoric example for the downside of impulsivity occurred when I was in junior high school.  One day I was riding our horse, whose name was Jeff.  As he was loping along, we approached a tire swing hanging from the limb of a tree.  I decided to grab the rope as we passed and swing from the horse like a cowboy action hero.  I was riding bareback, so it was not difficult to pull off my stunt.  It did confuse Jeff, however.  He continued about 20 yards until he stopped and looked perplexed.  As I walked to where he was waiting, intending to continue my ride, Jeff tuned, lifted his left rear leg and kicked me in the thigh.  He wanted nothing more to do with a crazy person that day.  Don’t be surprised if “crazy” actions in any of our lives are met with a similar response by the universe during the coming year.

While I think that individual personal development is going to be more important than national or world events this year, we should look briefly at what we might be seeing on the news.  The previous Horse years I have researched are 1894, 1906, 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990 and 2002.  Each of us could benefit by looking back on what happened in our lives during any of those years (the ones in which we were alive, anyway) for a glimpse of some of the themes that may come around once again.  The Wood Horse years were 1894 and 1954. Continue reading “YEAR OF THE HORSE – 2014”