Or, in my case, if it ain’t completely broken, don’t bother fixing it. My greatest achievement this week was getting hold of a plumber and fixing various things around the house, chief among them the kitchen tap, which had become a nightmare. Yet, now I am very reluctant to touch the new shiny one. I almost miss the old one, which is weird. Thing is, I've been living in this apartment for 18 years. We’ve grown old together. We knew each other and made do. Just as you grow old in your body and you know all its tricks and how to make it work.
Understanding that things grow old, rickety, and crumbling apart is key to accepting your own inevitable deterioration. There is no eternal youth and no matter how hard you try, not everything is fixable, like a kitchen tap.
When telling me about some ailment, my mother used to reassure me, and herself - “No worry, I know my body better than anyone. I know what it needs”. Code for “No, I’m not calling the doctor for that”.
A normal person would have called a plumber six months ago. Only six months ago I was dealing with severe back pain. Quite debilitating. Several friends urged me to see a doctor and run some tests. Like my mother, I said I know just what my body needs. Rest and a bit of gentle exercise. It wasn't easy, healing took much longer than it used to, but it worked. The tap also worked if you knew how to jiggle it.
Any appliance can be fixed or replaced. Your body, not so much. No one’s going to give me a new spine. This one will have to do and it’s my job to know how to keep it working.
Having very little faith in doctors is an inherited trait. You only see a doctor only in extreme circumstances and forget about them the moment the emergency is over. Served us right so far. The health system is so lucrative because people buy into the idea that their problem is fixable and they can put off getting old and eventually dying. Just as the church hooks you by promising death is not final, the medical establishment gets you by telling you there are plenty of options for whatever bothers you. And you believe them, because that’s what you want to believe.
Someone was recently complaining to me that they've been going to various doctors for 20 years and they’re still sick. You’d expect that after all this time they’d get it. There is no cure for ailments that have become chronic. Except no, you want to believe it is fixable. Some new drug or a surgery only available in Germany.
Another recent achievement - getting an old orchid to bloom again
Yes, there are things you can do to get better, pills that work for some problems and what not, but on the whole you still need to realize that you have to make do with a deteriorating body. This morning I was reading an article about some rich guy spending millions every year in his quest for eternal youth. His method included waking up at 5 and stuffing himself with healthy foods, not to mention hours of exercise and not touching alcohol. I don't know how much you can enjoy life when you’re obsessing about your health… What the reader was supposed to get from the stupid article was the very sneaky idea that, yes, you can cheat old age and death. ’f only I had this kind of money’. Since you don’t, you’ll settle for the next best thing which for most is having their doctor prescribe the newest bestest wonder drug. Even if it’s a bloody rebranded aspirin that costs three times as much as the old one. Seriously, every time I go to the pharmacy I have to mention I want plain aspirin or they’ll present me with fancy brands…
Maybe at some point humans will live a lot longer, but that’s not the point. The point is making the most of what you have, the best you can. What good would it be for someone to live 300 years, if they’re going to be unhappy, bored, and depressed.
