He Who Seeks to Cover His Mistakes will Forever be Hiding

   The man who is not allowed to make mistakes is not allowed to be human. If we look at the follies and ill decisions of others, we deprive them of that which every person must have: the right to make mistakes -- the right to be wrong.
   Of course, I speak of my past posts on chiropractic. I am now thinking I was wrong. I could go through and delete the posts, but I don't guess I will. He who seeks to cover his mistakes will forever be hiding.

My Belief in Chiropractic Shifted Tonight

 The difference of a day. Well, make that two. Thursday, I suggested chiropractic care should be available to every senior except when we can see it is not a fit. Tonight, I went online, reading the criticism of chiropractic.
  And, I am now persuaded chiropractic is not as beneficial as what I hoped. Oh, I still wonder if making it available to seniors might be a good idea. If chiropractic does work -- if it can separate the discs so nerves are not pinched, and thus stop the pain -- it is a good idea, yet.
   I think I should like to tell of my experience with chiropractic. I answered a newspaper ad on peripheral neuropathy. When I got in there, they said I didn't qualify for that program as I did not have peripheral neuropathy --- but that I could benefit from regular chiropractic treatment. The doctor showed me before-and-after x-rays of a patient, the first x-ray showing a collapsed disc and the second showing vertebrae where the spacing would not pinch the nerves.
   He suggested he had tried to get medical doctors to come look at the difference. What they were saying doesn't happen, does. That was the thought. Proper spacing between vertebrae can be restored.
   Now, I'm a man with a bad back. I don't want it fused so I can no longer run. I understood that is where I would end up if I went to a spine clinic. So, by holding before me a vision that all would be okay without surgery, I -- get this -- signed a contract requiring me to pay $2700 within a year.
   And, the adjustments began.
   Most of them involved me laying on my side, the top leg bent and he would come down with sudden force on that leg and supposedly force spine parts to move, to create a gap between the vertebrae. A couple things soon began to bother me. First, I couldn't see how the adjustment was targeting my back. How are we adjusting the back when the force is being applied in another location? Second, supposing my back was being adjusted, how come I didn't feel any pain there? If you are moving the disc or vertebrae or whatever, shouldn't moving it through the tendons or muscle or whatever extract some pain?  I'd feel pain in the top inside of my leg, because that is where the force was being applied, but my back was unaffected, no pain being created or felt.
   I last saw the chiropractor Wednesday. He has left on vacation and my next appointment isn't until Jan. 8. He had previously told me he is successful with 90 percent of his patients and indicated the other 10 percent is littered with those who don't do their part by icing their backs and such. Despite that I told him I was not able to function any better after five weeks, he assured me I would be made better, though it would take six months to a year.
   I thanked him profusely. I was desperate to believe -- and still am. When you have a serious problem, and someone is saying they can make it okay, you are quick to believe.
   Pulling up the critical reviews I have tonight has prompted me to reconsider chiropractic. Just the same, I still have hope it can do some good. I might yet go back, come Jan. 8. Although I cannot understand how applying force in a different area affected the back, perhaps it did. And, perhaps the vertebrae can be moved without pain or even a feeling that something has been moved.

We Should Help Them Anyway

  "A journey through a land of extreme poverty: Welcome to America," says a headline in the Guardian. The story speaks of 41 million American's living in official poverty and 9 million of them having zero income.
  Some of the Facebook comments on the story suggest these people should concentrate on getting job skills. I agree, I agree.
   But, it also seems many of them are so addicted to alcohol and drugs that they are somewhat incapacitated. I do not know that we are right to say they have brought upon themselves the situations they are in, and let them suffer.
   I believe we should help everyone. 
   But, before we can get them in jobs, we need to try to help them with their addictions. And, when they are unable or unwilling to overcome their addictions, we should help them, anyway.
   What is the old proverb? Charity asks not the cause, only the need.

Chiropractic Care Might Unlock Better Health to Millions of Seniors

   I have become a tentative believer in chiropractic, and even as I have done so, I have wondered if it could do wonders for seniors. Is chiropractic a hidden key to their health? Flood them with chiropractic care, and happiness and health in old age might be significantly increased.
   We have a crisis in our care of seniors. In the name of comfort care, we place them on opioids, which can cause addiction, depression, psychosis, and hallucinations. If this is our idea of comfort, we are mistaken. If this is our idea of letting them die in peace, we haven't thought things through very well.
  So, what is the alternative? If we don't want them on opioids, what can we offer them?
  Chiropractic to the rescue.
  If we can take them out of their pain, they don't need opioids. If much of the pain can be eliminated through chiropractic adjustments, doesn't that make chiropractic care a better alternative than opioids? I suggest we try the benefits of chiropractic. We should encourage it, and offer it through our insurance policies. Except for cases when we can see it is not a fit, every senior should have chiropractic care available to them.
  If chiropractic care does work -- and it am tending to think it does -- perhaps as much as anyone, seniors can benefit from it. It is they, more than any other group, perhaps, that suffer from back problems. It is they, as much as any other group, perhaps, that suffer from chronic pain.
  We owe it to ourselves, and to the society we live in, to try this out. If we flood our seniors with chiropractic care, if we bring it into every senior living center, and reach it into every home where there is an elderly person, we will soon know whether it is of benefit.
  We should do this thing. We should look into everything we can to make the end-of-life experience a better experience, and this could be one of them.

If We would have Them End Their Lives in Dignity, this is not it

  If we want our seniors to exit life gracefully and in comfort, we surely should make better arrangements for them than what we have. We speak of allowing them to end their lives peacefully, but the system we have created in these past few decades carries them through a process that is anything but peaceful.

  I wonder if it would be wrong to use stronger language. I wonder if the way we treat our seniors is scandalous.

  We pare back on how often we operate on them, often deciding their bodies cannot endure such surgeries. We suggest that such surgeries might keep them alive, but their lives will only be lives lived in pain and discomfort. The quality of life is what is important, and at that point, they have no quality of life, we say.
   So, we seek to bring them peace. We seek to give them comfort. We offer them what we call palliative care -- comfort care. Do you know what that translates into?

   Opioids.
   If we are to give them comfort, we must take away their pain. That translates into stringing them out on drugs for the final years of their lives. Opioids can bring depression, psychosis, and even hallucinations. That certainly sounds like a peaceful way to have them end their lives, doesn't it?
  We speak of allowing them to end their lives in dignity. I do not know how ending your life addicted to drugs should be called dignity. I don't know how being depressed and psychotic is a way of ending your life with dignity. 

  Yes, I do think it a little bit scandalous the way we have come to treat our seniors across these past few decades. In the name of giving them comfort, we put them through the worst years of their lives. We would do them better by trying to cure more of their health problems, instead of placing them into "comfort" care.
   Health is always the greatest happiness, and that doesn't change just because you get old. If we could enable more of them to live their final years in good health, that would be wonderful. And, when we cannot bring them health, we should not be so quick to administer opioids.
   I suggest we should rethink the path we have created for those approaching death. A path littered with opioids, addiction, depression, psychosis, and hallucinations is not a peaceful path.
  If we would have them end their lives in dignity, this is not it.

(Note: One sentence added on 12/14/17.)

Revisiting My Comments on 'the Staff of Life' and 'the Energy of Life'

   "And when I have broken the staff of your life, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven." -- Leviticus 26:26
   Just two days ago, I blogged on how a modern book of scripture (the Doctrine and Covenants from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) said grain is "the staff of life," and I noted the similarity of language from a modern scientist, who said glucose (which is in grains such as wheat) is "the energy of life."
  In my blog, I wrote how I found it interesting that so many years after a prophet of God wrote about grain being the staff of life that scientists would come to a similar conclusion.
  I failed to realize the obvious, that Joseph Smith wasn't the first to use the phrase, "staff of life." The phrase can be traced back to the Bible, itself.
  That lessens by quite a degree the thought that Joseph was prophetic.
   It lessens, but, it does not fully repudiate the prophetic nature of the verbiage Joseph Smith used. It remains that Joseph Smith's revelation did, indeed, say grain is "the staff of life." If that corresponds with something in the Bible, great. And the scientist, Dr. Robert H. Lustig, did, indeed, come along all these years later and indicate that the same food source is "the energy of life."
  Today, the phrase "staff of life" is commonly applied just to bread. "Bread is the staff of life." Both Joseph Smith's revelation and Dr. Lustig's comments used the word differently, not referring just to bread, but to grain, in the one instance, and to all foods containing the carbohydrate glucose in the other, grains being a large part of that. So, in wondering if use of the phrase was prophetic, you must consider that neither Smith nor Lustig used the phrase as it was most commonly used, meaning to refer to bread as the staff of life, but rather both used it for the larger body of food.

Do it Differently than We have Ever Done with a National Park

   Once wilderness is turned into a national park, there might be no going back. I do not say we should not create a national park in Grand Staircase, I only say that if we do, perhaps we should make it a more protected park than we have heretofore known.
   Do it differently than we have ever done with a national park.
   I like it that there are massive areas of land down there that haven't seen an overly lot of footprints. I wonder if we should keep it that way.
   How about a large, expansive national park protection area (including both Grand-Staircase Escalante and Bears Ears), where some parts are allowed footprints, and grazing, and tourism, but others are shielded from such things?
   How about making the helicopter or the air balloon, the way you view most of these sites? If you charged entry fees to cover the expense, it would make for an expensive park, but it still might be a worthy way to protect the park while at the same time opening it to the public.