Only Game In Town

This was a funny sign up in Harpers Ferry yesterday, Thanksgiving Day. 

Outside this restaurant, it says, “Only OPEN Place in Town, GREAT Food.”

I suppose if it’s the only game in town, then whatever food they have is by definition “great”-compared to going hungry that is. 

Life is very much like this–where everything is relative. 

If I have too many choices–how do I choose? 

Whatever I choose, I may second guess myself that maybe another one would’ve been better. 

It’s like when I go out with my daughter to eat, somehow whatever she orders is always better than what I got!

But when choice is limited or non-existent, well then “beggars can’t be choosey.”

Essentially, your happy with what you have– perhaps, something is often better than nothing. 

But really it’s much more than that, because if you look closely at others, you realize that what you have is actually a pretty darn good lot in life–so don’t be envious, jealous, or be too quick to want to change places with your neighbor. 

Obviously, this was a very apropos sign for Thanksgiving–where we need to learn to be grateful for everything we have in life. 

It is our basket, and we wouldn’t want to trade it for anything in the world (and if you did, you’d be sorry afterwards). 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Speed Of Time

So a friend told me yesterday something interesting about the passing of time. 

We were looking back and saying how quickly it all goes…

I said, “Like the blink of an eye!”

He then told me this:

“Time is like the speed of a automobile. 

Your age is how fast the car is going. 

So for a child of 10-years old, the car is going 10 miles an hour…and it feels too slow. 

But for an adult of 60-years old, the car is going 60 miles per hour…too fast–in this case, 5 miles over the speed limit. 

The older you get the faster the whole thing goes by.”

I told him how much I liked this explanation. 

And finished by saying, that in the end, we should just have good memories of it all. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Pain Is Relative

I’ve always found it a little strange when the doctor (or nurse) asks you, “On a scale of 0 to 10, how much pain are you in?”

Why?

Because pain (like many emotions) is relative to our understanding of it.

To me, when someone says a 10 for pain, I think of someone under the most excruciating pain–like when someone, G-d forbid, is being tortured.

However, someone else may think of 10 as just being really sick and uncomfortable.

That’s why I like this graphic that is used to level-set what each number in the scale represents.

Using this simple graphic, our definition of pain is not purely subjective, but rather each person can look at the faces and expressions and see how they relate to them.

Of course, the goal on the right for zero pain is a great goal, even if not always achievable.

In a sense this is a very basic personal architecture–where you have your “as-is” on the scale and your “to-be” which is your goal.

Then the doctor and patient work together to figure out a transition plan on how to get there (medicine, rehabilitation, healthier living, etc.).

While pain is usually just a symptom, it is a beginning to get at the root cause of what is bothering us and needs to be fixed. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)