The Flu

I'm just getting over it, or something similar to it. Ouch! This was one rough week. I started to feel bad last Sunday, and am just now starting to feel back to normal. Unfortunately, I missed my woodcarving class on Saturday. I'll try to find one somewhere else so I don't have to wait until the Spring. I did manage to take Dominic to see the Incredibles on Friday night, which was an accomplishment, considering I felt like the smashed popcorn on the floor.

As I lay in bed Saturday morning, half-asleep, half-drugged, but still suffering, I thought about the connections of my illness to a theme from Brave New World. In Brave New World, disease had been eliminated. Nobody got sick. But, was this a good thing? Certainly, it seemed like it would be a good thing for me last week if nobody ever got sick. But, I'm not so sure. It's a hard question. There are many implications that come along with eliminating all sickness and disease. Overpopulation is one concern. However, I can't imagine not trying to become healthy, or trying to get other people healthy. If there was a magic drug that we could take (similar to Brave New World's Soma) that had no side effects, and immediately made us feel better, would it be ethical to take such a drug? All I can say is that if offered such a drug Saturday morning, I would have taken it in an instant. This doesn't necessarily mean that I think it would have been the right thing to do.

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