“I hope you realize, Curmudge, that we breezed past our 300th
posting as if it were nothing special.”
“I was aware of it, Julie, but I wanted first to wrap up our
series on Curmudgeonocracy.”
“So what’s next?
More on government or perhaps health care?”
“However the spirit moves me, chère collègue. But at
the moment, this spirit is discouraged.”
“How so, Old Guy?”
“Consider the topics we have dealt with at length—government
and health care—and how they have changed since my childhood in the 1930’s and
40’s. The world is still full of
hate, and now there are small wars inspired by religious fanatics instead of
one big one inspired by totalitarian fanatics. However, our leadership is clearly poorer. Let me give you an example from just
this week. My friend’s son is a
battle-hardened Marine NCO, yet our government won’t allow him to re-enlist to
continue his Marine career. Just
because someone said ‘no boots on the ground.’ Never? Maybe
our leadership can’t see any further into the future than the six o’clock news
broadcast.”
“What about health care? Advances certainly have been dramatic since you were a kid.”
“You are right there, Julie, but one can easily find bad as
well as good examples. Last night
I attended a party given by a woman my age who has been treating very serious
cancer for the past three years.
She looked well and has been living a full life. On the other hand, earlier in the week
I visited a much younger friend in hospice. Her oncologist told her there was no hope. She is dying not from her cancer but from
her chemotherapy!” (Written before
her death on 10/04/14.)
“I share your distress, Old Guy, and so does Doc Mack. But nevertheless, on our Kaizen
Curmudgeon anniversaries in the past we have provided a look back to fairly
recent postings for our readers. I
trust that we will celebrate ‘300’ in a similar fashion.”
“That shouldn’t be difficult. In our Happy
Seventh Birthday posting on 5/22/14 we listed all of the postings in 2014
up to that date. Since then we
have published 13 postings, all on Curmudgeonocracy. Readers who might want to explore some of our historical
stuff can go to the Blog Archives in the right margin of each posting. They might find these of interest:
Kaizen Curmudgeon
Blog Title—Date Posted
Kaizen Curmudgeon for
Seniors, posted 5/27/13.
Health Effects of Low Doses of Radiation (Title: Unconventional Wisdom), six postings
starting on 2/28/13.
Global Warming (Title: Climate
Science), five postings starting on 7/23/13.
Alternative Medicine,
eight postings starting on 9/27/13.”
“A final question, Professor. Do you believe that we will ever reach 400 postings?”
“The probability is low, Julie. I may find other activities to exercise my mind. But unlike several of my neighbors here
in the ‘old folks home,’ it will never be jigsaw puzzles.”
Kaizen Curmudgeon
Link to posting from blog archives: The Old Men’s Table—4/18/11
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