Kindness

I spent much of today getting some new herbal treatment to try. I spend a lot of time at different herbalists, I've been seeing one particular Chinese herbalist for at least five years now, and he's a miracle worker with most "normal" ailments, but the MS is eluding even him. We'll see how this one goes... I'm going to be trying another one, recommended by my Qi Gong practitioner, in October--it takes that long to get an appointment with him, he's definitely a Big Cheese in this field.

So, the herbalism is definitely not on the "legitimate" radar, as far as Western medicine goes.

But I received kinder treatment, and more personal, more caring care, than I get from most--nay from almost any--Western practitioners.

Yeah, it's an odd treatment method. Many people don't approve. But the practitioners were kind. They spoke to me, the person, rather than simply facilitating me transporting my organ systems and orifices into the room where the machine was going to poke and prod, yeah it's gonna hurt, can't do anything about that and we don't really care that much anyway, thank you very much, pick up your parking validation and prescription from the girl on the way out.

Even the receptionists were nicer than receptionists at Big Medical Centers.

Yeah, the West has got double-blind statistics down to a finely honed science. Imagine if they had honed kindness and "treating the patient, not the disease" to the same level.

Your milage may vary, as the saying goes. I won't deny, gentle reader, that perhaps your experience has been different from mine.

But kindness can heal too. Perhaps we should all try a little more of that.