Visiting Hospitals, Urgent Care Centers Doctors a Dentist and an Endodontist--A Lesson

You know the expression "Some things never get old?"  It really doesn't apply all that much when you're one of the "old things."  Actually, visits to the above-entitled institutions recently have made me feel younger and healthier, which are relative terms of course, and if you're coming out of these places Imagining yourself as younger and healthier, consider the case of the Chinese sage, Chuang-Tzu.  He awoke one day from a dream in which he was a butterfly, or, he wondered, was he really a butterfly who was now dreaming he was Chuang-Tzu?      

But forget about whether it makes you feel younger or healthier (if someone your age can imagine something like that); reflect on any recent experience you have had and consider whether it left you feeling more joyous, more whole, more comfortable, more satisfied (perhaps even healthier?)--whatever.  A trip to the doctor's office, the urgent care or even the hospital bears the potential to leave you feeling worse off.  Even if they do leave you feeling better off, I will wager you wish you had never had to go there in the first place (hey, that's not fair for those of you who go there to work and to help others to bet me, you are the exception, although some who do this work find it less than satisfying, too--but I am wandering off the point).  The bold statement I wanted to make was this--this stuff gets old.  Give me six months (6 weeks?) without the need to visit any of the aforementioned places and that, my friends, would indeed be a thing that would never get old.

Now the fact is that none of these visits was caused by a life-threatening condition, but that only makes it that much more annoying,  Shame on me, I complain about all these humdrum things that led up to my visit, when there are people who go in there in extreme circumstances.  And we don't need a television drama set in a hospital to remind us of that.  The serious things, the life-threatening ones, are not the ones I am talking about.  I'm talking about the visits where the ER triage leaves you waiting until you are the last one there.  "Oh, yeah, you need treatment, but not nearly as badly as this or that other person."  Even at the endodontist's office, he apologizes for taking three hours to do your root canal, which ended up taking him about 15 minutes of actual work.  "Sorry," he says, "I had an emergency come in."  It gets old.  

But everything is relative, and "what is important and necessary" for you is not the same as what is "important and necessary" for everyone else.  Think about the man who was praying to God.  "Lord," he prays, "I would like to ask you a question."  Believe it or not, Our Lord answers him, "No problem.  Go ahead."  He asks, 'Lord, is it true that over a million years to you is but a second?"  Our Lord replies, "yes, that is true."  So the man asks, "Well, then, what is a million dollars to you?"  Our Lord responds, "A million dollars to me is but a penny."
"Ah, then Lord, will you give me a million dollars?"  "Sure," says the Lord, "Just a second."   

I just can't think of anything more to say.  Einstein understood relativity, not me.