Opus 2023-049: Go Natural

More dead, young athletes in the news every day.  That is only part of the tragedy of Thalidomide, the Sequel.  The chemicals injected were not adequately tested and the side effects were covered up.  I accept that.  I think there was plenty of warning for people who were paying attention.  The good news is that the vaccines only kill and cripple a small percentage of those who take them, just like the virus itself.  Your chances are good for survival.

I think the lockdown will have a greater long term effect and it will all be off the radar.  I am not talking about how the kids lost a year of education.  (cue the violins)  Since they would not have learned much, what they would have learned was wrong and their parents could teach them more at home, that is not a big issue for me.

I believe the lockdown did more damage to our immune systems than our education.  One of the often bemoaned results of large numbers of children confined to a small common space is the sharing of germs.  If we could color code day care centers it would be a virtual spectrum of pathogens.  I do not say that as if it were a bad thing.  It is part of the process of growing strong bodies 12 ways without the benefits of Wonder Bread.  Exposure to attacking viruses and bacteria forces your immune system to get off the couch and start working out.  With each match the white blood cells and their allies get stronger and more finessed.  

I came to this thinking about why my granddaughter might be more healthy than the adults in the family even though she is home schooled:  Awanas, Sunday School and the neighbor kids.  They are all a wealth of infecting agents and they cause the family immune systems to be golden.

I think there is a better way to educate than schools as we have them established.  I am not a big fan of public education even though I taught middle school almost 30 years.  One invaluable contribution they make is the constant exposure to bugs.  Historically there were sources for that.  In rural America you got exposure by rolling in the dirt, trying to ride the pig and going to church pot lucks.  In urban America you live in such sterile surroundings that school assumes the role.
Contact with Europeans was devastating to the American Indians.  Compare them with the masses of Europe when it comes to disease.  Europe had paid the price of building immunity over the centuries.  The Americas had to do it all at once.  As the commercial said, “Pay me now or pay me later.”

So if you get sick get a lot of rest, drink plenty of liquids and I recommend my secret family elixir:  Lipton Noodle Soup.

homo unius libri