As a consumer, I feel as if I am suspended in the Netherworld. Daily reports with contradictory information accost me like asteroid particles bombarding the Mothership in a sci-fi movie. Between the pharmaceutical industry and our national governmental leadership, we - the American public - are buffeted about as in a Category Five hurricane. Add in the confusion and in-fighting regarding health care and one wonders where 'this' is all going.
Conflicting information about this and that prescription drug is released on an almost-daily basis. This drug, when taken as instructed, actually exacerbates the very condition for which it was prescribed. That drug, when taken as directed, is effective for the first years, after which its ingestion becomes counterproductive to the original remedial purpose. I find this highly unsettling and prone to make me question ever agreeing to take another prescription medication. Are we all just rats in a laboratory experiment, the results of which will be revealed at a later date? Oh-by-the-way, take at your own risk.
The seat of our nation's government is full of elected officials that would never be able to agree on which nursing home(s) to put their loved ones in. Of course, these politicians would not need to worry about that because they have the finest health-insurance coverage in the world........the same politicians, many of whom have never served in the military but are more than willing to commit our military personnel to the dangers of war and our nation's economic resources to funding 'conflicts' abroad.
Then there is the matter of our country's sad state of economic affairs. I wouldn't want any of my state or national elected men and women to handle my personal financial matters. The term 'balanced budget' is but a pipe dream from a 1960's hallucinogenic-inspired rock ballad.
So what is between the rock and the hard place? As I prepare to complete this, the four-hundredth posting of Ancora imparo, I am challenged to find an answer. I do know that I find solace in my family, my grandchildren, friends, the idea of becoming a poultry farmer in Iowa or becoming a dog trainer. I'd list baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet, but two out of those four are on the endangered species list. Perhaps it should be my Three Muskateers, chocolate, wine, a puppy and my cookie closet.
Don't bother calling me from my rock and the hard place unless the Three Muskateers have come to visit or a puppy ends up on my front-door step.
Ancora imparo
