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Hurt knee and larger issues
Sep. 5th, 2010 10:15 amFriday night, I took a fall off my bicycle. I pulled something in my left knee. At this point, my knee is fairly usable except for being swollen, and it's noticeably better than yesterday. I've been elevating it, taking ibuprofen [1], compressing it some of the time and chilling it at other times. I'm told that I should be throwing some heat at it in a day or so. And I've been using some Taoist massage from The Way of Healing, which has helped.
The major practical lesson I'm taking from this is that if I'm in a "I just want to get home" mood, I should pause, breath, and focus more on my surroundings. For me, "I just want to get home" means just thinking about that more than anything else.
The cats are dealing adequately with being fed in the kitchen rather than the basement-- the stairs to the basement don't have a railing for the top half.
Fortunately, there's nothing urgent that I can't do, the heat has broken, and I had most of a sandwich from the Famous Fourth Street Delicatessen, the best deal in Philadelphia. Their big sandwiches cost about $20, and are enough for three or four meals.
However, I've also been reading Torture and Democracy, and soon after I fell, I was also grateful that I wasn't surrounded by people who were dedicated to making my life worse. I got help-- a passerby helped me up, and got me neosporin for scrapes, bandaids, ibuprofen, and a glass of water. I was free to move, eat, drink, and sleep.
If the book is right, the only reason the world has mostly moved to less destructive forms of torture is monitoring, and this seems plausible to me. Getting rid of the less destructive forms is going to be a long haul, but Amnesty International is a major organization working on it. I've given them some money, and if doing so will fit into your life, I hope you will, too.
[1] In my heart of hearts, I'm not sure it's better than aspirin. Can something without the bitter taste really work? Seriously, I know ibuprofen is easier on the stomach, but is it as good at reducing swelling?
The major practical lesson I'm taking from this is that if I'm in a "I just want to get home" mood, I should pause, breath, and focus more on my surroundings. For me, "I just want to get home" means just thinking about that more than anything else.
The cats are dealing adequately with being fed in the kitchen rather than the basement-- the stairs to the basement don't have a railing for the top half.
Fortunately, there's nothing urgent that I can't do, the heat has broken, and I had most of a sandwich from the Famous Fourth Street Delicatessen, the best deal in Philadelphia. Their big sandwiches cost about $20, and are enough for three or four meals.
However, I've also been reading Torture and Democracy, and soon after I fell, I was also grateful that I wasn't surrounded by people who were dedicated to making my life worse. I got help-- a passerby helped me up, and got me neosporin for scrapes, bandaids, ibuprofen, and a glass of water. I was free to move, eat, drink, and sleep.
If the book is right, the only reason the world has mostly moved to less destructive forms of torture is monitoring, and this seems plausible to me. Getting rid of the less destructive forms is going to be a long haul, but Amnesty International is a major organization working on it. I've given them some money, and if doing so will fit into your life, I hope you will, too.
[1] In my heart of hearts, I'm not sure it's better than aspirin. Can something without the bitter taste really work? Seriously, I know ibuprofen is easier on the stomach, but is it as good at reducing swelling?
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