Skip to main content

The Elixir

What happens when the promised elixir (*) that has been touted for centuries as guaranteed to promote health, heal the wounds, cure disease, alleviate pain and prevent the noxious viruses from returning does not deliver on the hoped-for happy outcome? What is left for us to conclude when we observe the sick and infirm, the injured, the newly infected, bedridden souls, walking wounded,    still vulnerable to the onslaught of malignant microbes? Has the original situation fundamentally changed? Do we delude ourselves by claiming progress? Are we to say, behold the amazing power of the elixir that only here and there, haphazardly and unpredictably works its magic? Because many have closed themselves off from the healing effects and thereby prove unworthy of a cure? Is that it? On the basis of such glaring evidence,  could one not reasonably begin to question the purpose of the elixir itself? And if the elixir has not been working out as advertised, have we in fact misunderstood it?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Ghost of Moonlight Beach

  It was several decades ago now that the rumors were swirling about a possible ghost @ Moonlight Beach. There was a definite "buzz" among the Coast Highway vendors and their customers - enough to keep the conversation rolling...  Ronnie, for example, the short-order cook at the 1-11 Diner used to compare notes with Sue-Ellen - owner of the guitar shop about the latest "sighting" while Eduardo who owned the Taco Shack near the corner of D Street asked Mel who ran the old movie theater across the street if the real headquarters for the poltergeist might be in one of the older buildings - maybe an attic space. Maybe it's a ghost that goes on field-trips now and then - agreed Manny Uwanco - proprietor of the used book store and cousin to George Uwanco - the owner of George's diner.  Everyone tried to convince Lou - of Lou's Records that this thing was real - but he proved to be the skeptic of all skeptics.  Truth be told - it was hard to imagine a less hau...

The "stupidity" that often afflicts otherwise intelligent people: believing that logic can be applied in every situation to solve a problem where human beings are involved...One expects of humankind, a certain amount of prudence and foresight as part of daily decision-making, but at some point a logical approach to problem-solving is counter-intuitive. One must learn another kind of "logic" perhaps - a stratagem utilized by fools, knaves and con artists alike - each accustomed to navigate amid a daily outpouring of overwrought emotion, each expecting impulsive passion to rule the day....Behold the hidden puppet-master lurking in the shadows....

Reading the Signs...

Oftentimes we search for signs....omens....clues....indicators that help us feel (to some degree) in control of our circumstances or at least give us confirmation that we are on the right path, to happiness, to success, to completion..Out of the blue, something happens, and a sign is given.... (A new job, the big move, unexpected illness or injury,  a new romance, a sudden death...a family crisis....a violent confrontation... a change of attitude...extreme stress or trauma, a lazy day sleeping in, a chance encounter with a stranger...falling off a ladder...being hit by a car...going to the opera) We do not let such major events simply "go by"  without grasping for some explanation of why...Perhaps from an early age, our religious beliefs* (assuming that any were passed down to us) serve as guideposts....prompts....catalysts for this tendency....not  the tenets of faith alone, not the bare rituals etc., but the feelings that underlie, the deep-seated notions (ethical/philo...