Moody Monday: Learning Is Living

I continue to learn and live, or live and learn.  I have been reading a book about a genetic connection to Alzheimer's, and research done in Columbia in the 1990's through about 2020.  The text talks a lot about the culture of people in rural areas of Columbia and how they interact with medicine. Many illnesses are still considered curses from a witch, and many people still use herbal cures for illnesses that modern medicine knows herbs won't help. Health care providers have to be cautious, when a patient dies, the health care providers are often thought to have brought on the death. I was out at Mt. Vernon the other day, and there were a couple of nurses talking about medical care in the colonial times. George Washington died of a throat infection that caused his throat to swell shut. His doctor knew how to do a tracheotomy, but didn't, because he didn't want to be accused of killing the former President by slitting his throat. (And this was before an understanding of germs and antiseptics, Washington would have been at high risk of infection.) For the most part medicine in the developed world has moved beyond health care providers being accused on bringing the angel of death.  For the most part. 

The thing that struck me, was that the book I was reading, and the conversation with the two nurses, connected facts. That is learning. 

The clock is now in the museum at the George Washington Masonic Memorial, the wooden wedge stopping the movement is still in place. Freezing the moment in time.  

While I was out at Mt. Vernon the where shearing sheep. George Washington raised sheep, for wool, and also for manure. He considered it superior to cow manure for enriching the fields. I am reading a book on American Sheep. I was surprised to read about the shortage of wool for military use in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. Military uniforms, were primarily made from wool. It was estimated that it took 6-pounds of wool per year, per soldier to keep them properly clothed. Modern sheep produce that much wool per year, 250 years ago, you needed almost 2 sheep per soldier. 

So how am I feeling? I am staying busy, reading and connecting what I am reading to the world around me. I am learning new things.  I am living, living well. Now to figure out what "is" "is."