Chinese Medicine Guys

Hey Barack: The Game Is Rigged

Hey Barack,

The Health Care game is so rigged, I don’t even know where to start.

How about a little story. The story is more compelling if I could tell the whole thing, but I can’t as it wouldn’t be right. That’s one thing the Western Medicine-Military-Industrial complex has a tough time doing -- the right thing especially when it negatively impacts the bottom line.

I wasn’t always this cynical but about 5 years into George W. Bush’s presidency, I started to wonder how things got so fucked up across the board and why Bush would embrace things getting even more screwed up. I had no clue why, but I wasn’t able to ignore it any longer. I needed to understand. So being blessed to have an Apple laptop and an Internet connection to the likes of the NY Times, I studied in earnest about power and money as applied to government and corporations.

Neither power nor money are one of my weaknesses, so it made it even harder for me to understand these peoples motivations. It took a long time to understand things -- like how the greed on Wall Street could bring the entire financial sector down. Now it is obvious to me once you understand makes others clock tick.

People: Brad and Angelina Pick Up The Phone

In previous pieces, I was making an argument that I could help Gwyneth Paltrow’s life, because I’ve learned a bunch watching my sister Carol’s life and applying Chinese Medicine to it.

Earlier today, I was looking at NBC News and it must have been an Anniversary of Tim Russert’s death. Because there was a video clip of Tim and underneath it a quote by Tim saying his motto in life was, “work hard and laugh often”.

I don’t know if what I’m doing with Chinese Medicine is work, because I love doing it.  Although I often get frustrated, like a half hour ago, I read a NY Times piece about Alzheimer's patients at a nursing home whose symptoms get worse or were set off at night. I felt like crying, because the reasons for the symptoms getting worse at night were such a no-brainer for me, from a Chinese Medicine perspective, that I needed a laugh to take my mind off -- why what I know isn’t common knowledge.

I just got off the phone with Carol and 75% percent of the time was spent laughing over a simple story. After she told me the story, I said “Art Linkletter would be proud". There was a pause, as I didn’t know if Carol understood the reference. She said, “Yeah, kids say the darnedest things.”

It’s not suburban utopia at Carol’s house. The economy is in the toilet and it’s dramatically effecting their family business, which is their sole source of income. Her husband, Pete, runs the business. Most of his brothers and sisters work there and they depend on the company for their income. Tensions are high.

It’s Pleasant Valley Sunday there. Understandable. A few laughs are a useful tonic for many of us -- including Carol and me today.

People: Gwyneth De-Gooped -- More Epilogues

Epilogue: The Final Chapter (Unless It Sells -- Then Expect More Of The Same)

It’s about a week after the first Epilogue. Since then, I was close to killing myself. Seriously. I almost lost ten years of my work on my laptop that was properly backed-up to an external drive. Both my hard drive and external drive crashed at the same time and I had to replace them both.

I went to the Apple Store to get it fixed. I dropped off my laptop and external drive, and they would call me to let me know when they were done. I prayed they could restore my files from one of these two broken places.

While I waited for the computer lab results, I went to see the movie Duplicity knowing why people go to movies to escape their problems. After the movie, I checked for phone messages and there one was from the Apple Store. I was afraid to hear the results because things looked dire when I talked to them to initially drop it off.

It was the worst possible news -- The Apple Store guy says that that they were unable to restore any of my lost files even though they fixed the laptop. I didn’t care about the laptop. I cared about the files on it.

People: Gwyneth De-Gooped

(Note: After writing this piece, I should rename it -- Monster In The Laptop)

To Be Or Not To Be  -- That Is The Question

Last night I had the following dream:

Dream:

I’m hanging out with Gwyneth Paltrow. Even though, we have just met, I’m her friend. And we’re getting to know each other better.

I like her, although she is an obvious mess and my heart goes out to her. She has no idea how she is shooting herself in the foot  – every day. I’m observing her – trying to understand what is going on with her and how to best help her. I do this with a lot of my friends who seek out my (free) help.  -- (Exhibit A)(Exhibit B)(Exhibit C)

We are driving in her nice car and traffic is very congested. Her cell phone rings and I can hear the entire conversation -- both ends of it. It’s her 4 year-old boy, and he’s being a little brat which I know is because she trained him to be that way. She wanted the best for him but ended up spoiling him. The kid says, “Mom you’re never at home. I want you home now!”

Gwyneth says, “I’ll be home real soon honey. Your nanny will take good care of you until I get there.” The kid is not soothed – and either am I. I feel like diving through to the other end of the phone line and popping out. Taking the kid by the scruff of the neck and saying, “Give your Mom a break. I’m onto you game and it won’t play here.” (I’m even warm and fuzzy in my dreams.)

But I don’t astral travel. I watch Gwyneth unravel as she berates herself for being a horrible mom for neglecting her kid. I’m wondering how to send her a message so she gets it without dismissing it. I say nothing and ponder. She says, “I’ve got to get off this road right now. I gotta get home now (for whomever the brat’s name is)”.

Admin: Sisyphus’s Status Report

It’s been about a month since the last blog entry and I’ve written a few pieces edited by Carol about Gwyneth Paltrow’s blog. I written a few other windbag pieces that Carol is editing.

Carol taught me the concept in journalism of evergreen pieces. It’s where you write a piece in the Stone Age and it will still be as evergreen fresh as yesterday’s newspaper when it’s finally published. I wrote the Gwyneth pieces awhile ago thinking they were evergreen, but if I don’t post them soon they will be as tasty, as that sour milk hidden in the back of the fridge right behind the open Arm & Hammer Baking Soda to remove the rotten smell.

Sooo....I just thought of a secret someone told me yesterday. I twice wrote and deleted it as it was an amusing story, but it was a “secret”. I was torn between revealing and concealing, so the typing and deleting repeatedly. I hate to not pass on amusing stories.

Sooo... why was I holding out onto the Gwyneth pieces to post? Well, I was getting so caught up in the epilepsy research, I figured it was gonna be a long time between blog posts so I might need an evergreen piece now and then to prove that this website hasn’t completely folded up shop and gone the way of the Dinosaur.