CURES
We are continually beset with illness and for centuries we have honored and respected those people who could avert such problems. The Medicine Man was a highly respected figure in tribal lore and whatever his or her title in any particular tribe, they were special persons who were set apart and granted special benefits for the important work they did.
There certainly must have been some worthy individuals who distrusted the many people who undertook this role. Some who chose to do so, may have felt a religious power driving them to serve their fellow creatures in times of pain and suffering. And, in addition to the genuine medicine man there must have been charlatans who practiced a deceitful type of magic and fooled their fellow without mercy in exchange for better living conditions that those afforded the ordinary person.
Today, many are critical of the work done by the professional doctors or health care workers. It, at times, is matter of abrasive personalities and a marked inability to get along with ones fellows, but many do develop both those who respect their special abilities and those who find fault with their actions.
When we hear the “snake oil” stories of generations past; stories of how venom and other deadly potents were used to combat illness and evil among humans. We read of of gross ignorance being the direct cause of the death of thousands. We hear tales about weird concoctions devised by witches and worst used as medicines to bring about cures from various maladies. We read about the use and misuse of such power as hyptnoism, mesmerism, electric belts, pins, combs, buttons, footwear; magnetic pain removers in every size, shape and texture; self cures, religious cures, psychotic cures,tonics, brews, potents and doses without number.
I thought about all of this dismal background today as I sat in a sturdy chair and rested by jaw on a parallel bar; l placed my forehead against a plastic barrier and sat and stared into a focused beam of red-spotted light which loomed in my sight -”both eyes open, please!”. I sat there undergoing what doctor's call a “YAG Posterior Capsulotomy” which is a simple, five minutes, or less procedure which restores light to the back of the eye to improve vision.
It wondered what the patient of centuries ago might have been thinking, had he been in my place.. less than that, really. Imagine what the patient of long ago might have been thinking. Certainly it would invite voodoo images and would seem far out and impractical in relation to knowledge of that time. We live and we learn. Or, at least many of us do so. Some people never learn which is why the 21st Century Medicine Men and Women are still held suspect, by some, of being in cahoots with the Devil.
A.L.M. June 15, 2004 [c646wds]
