~ OIRIW-OETD-IDTIWAOENTIAM-S-A-O-B-ITPOALL ~ Once I Realized I Was – Old Enough To Die – I Decided That I Was Also Old Enough Not To Incur Any More – Suffering – Annoyance – Or – Boredom – In The Pursuit Of A Longer Life

~ ACMCT-PMETTPIRMFAP-HM-IC ~ A Cynic Might Conclude That – Preventive Medicine Exists To Transform People Into Raw Material For A Profit-Hungry Medical-Industrial Complex

~ O-IBTBRAAPHP-A-ISRTAA-‘E’ ~ Overdiagnosis Is Beginning To Be Recognized As A Public Health Problem – And – Is Sometimes Referred To As An – “Epidemic”

~ INOAP-HMSTDOAO-IC-TI-FAPP-MDTTAETAMSITFIIBW ~ It’s Not Only A Profit-Hungry Medical System That Drives Overtesting And Overdiagnosis – Individual Consumers – That Is – Former And Potential Patients – May Demand The Testing And Even Threaten A Malpractice Suit If They Feel It Its Being Withheld

~ ‘PA’-G-HSUT-‘B’-DODAPTNFS-TGOATIG-‘A’-MAWTUTAS ~ “Patient Advocacy” – Groups – Have Sprung Up To – “Brand” – Dozens Of Diseases And Publicize The Need For Screening – The Goal Of All This Is Generally – “Awareness” – Meaning A Willingness To Undergo The Appropriate Screening

~ MPJTODVBT-‘POM’-TSC-EOCOTWRFPR ~ Many Physicians Justify Tests Of Dubious Value By The – “Peace Of Mind” – They Supposedly Confer – Except Of Course On Those Who Receive False Positive Results

~ ‘MOD’-TBCAT ~ “Medicalization Of Dying” – Tethered By Cables And Tubes

~ B-OETD-I-AA-N-AD-A-TFIBIWC ~ Being – Old Enough To Die – Is – An Achievement – Not – A Defeat – And – The Freedom It Brings Is Worth Celebrating

~ ROH ~ Rituals Of Humiliation

~ TEIOR ~ The Emotional Impact Of Ritual

~ TMOM ~ The Madness Of Mindfulness

~ TSSSTHSTW ~ The Small Screens Seemed To Have Swallowed The World

~ TDTWSTMUSAMCTOHWAMWOM-C-‘NB’-A-‘MM’ ~ The Devices That Were Supposed To Make Us Smarter And More Connected To Other Humans Were Actually Messing With Our Minds – Causing – “Net Brain” – And – “Monkey Mind”

~ M-MM-BTRO-LAB-NA-B-SU-C-A-DOARTTT-M-IISASF-HSF-BJANUFOTVL-A-‘PT’-OW ~ Mass-Market Mindfulness – Began To Roll Out – Like A Brand-New App – Buddhism – Sliced Up – Commodified – And – Drained Of All Reference To The Transcendent – Mindfulness – In Its Sleek And Secular Form – Has Spread Far – Becoming Just Another Numbingly Ubiquitous Feature Of The Verbal Landscape – As – “Positive Thinking” – Once Was

~ WBTH-WSAE-A-POTFACA-ADOS-AEOEA-ETVHOH ~ When Bad Things Happen – We Seek An Explanation – And – Preferably One That Features A Conscious Agency – A Deity Or Spirit – An Evildoer Or Envious Acquaintance – Even The Victim Him- Or Herself

~ WHRTTHODTDFTMFTUT-HTNIRRAP-O-ITCV-HTSCAIFM?-CWLA-TWHUATSF? ~ We Have Returned To The Habit Of Dissecting The Dead For The Moral Failings That Undid Them – Had They Neglected Important Religious Rituals And Prohibitions – Or – In The Contemporary Version – Had They Smoked Cigarettes And Ingested Fatty Meats? – Can We Learn Anything – That Will Help Us Avoid The Same Fate?

~ LONWS-EBTMBCAG-APECOCMRLHRT ~ Little Or Nothing Was Said – Even By The Major Breast Cancer Advocacy Groups – About Possible Environmental Carcinogens Or Carcinogenic Medical Regimes Like Hormone Replacement Therapy

~ CFTPUC-TWC-A-C ~ Concern For The Poor Usually Comes – Tinged With Criticism – And – Contempt

~ TCOCBUCFE-TWF-B-WA-T’W’F? ~ There Can Of Course Be Unfortunate Consequences From Eating – The Wrong Foods – But – What Are – The “Wrong” Foods?

~ TCO-E-‘F’-CBJADA-APORESATCLA ~ The Consequences Of – Employee – “Flexibility” – Can Be Just As Damaging As – A Program Of Random Electric Shocks Applied To Caged Laboratory Animals

~ THNBGWFW-CP ~ Things Have Not Been Going Well For Working-Class People

~ P-IEAT-B-CWC-A-FPMIPFWPDTT-K-B-O-RC ~ Pain – Is Endemic Among The – Blue-Collar Working Class – And – Few People Make It Past Fifty Without Palpable Damage To Their – Knees – Back – Or – Rotator Cuffs

~ NODW-TAF-B-WRTTWIMW-TANVTOMANEATOWOC ~ Not Only Do We – Think And Feel – But – We React To The World In Microscopic Ways – That Are Not Visible To Our Minds And Not Easily Accessible To Our Willpower Or Control

~ ‘HADD’-WSFIC-HDIT-A-SCBAAUEWTINT ~ “Hyperactive Agency Detection Devices” – We See Faces In Clouds – Hear Denunciations In Thunder – And – Sense Conscious Beings All Around Us Even When There Is Nothing There

~ IWTNONAA-P-UI-M-TWTM-A-PTBOTHEM-T-‘DON’-TTNWFA-C-TOTP-I-ARTBE ~ It Was The Notion Of Nature As A – Passive – Ultimately Inert – Mechanism – That Was The Mistake – And – Perhaps The Biggest One That Humans Ever Made – The – “Death Of Nature” – Turned The Natural World From A – Companionable – Though Often Threatening Place – Into – A Resource To Be Exploited

~ ‘SA’-‘AA’-‘HA’-‘PA’-‘VA’-‘A-A’-‘AW’-U-TGIAFFUOETF ~ “Successful Aging” – “Active Aging” – “Healthy Aging” – “Productive Aging” – “Vital Aging” – “Anti-Aging” – “Aging Well” – Unfortunately – The Gurus’ Instructions Are Far From Unanimous Or Easy To Follow