At the medics

 

I went for my regular check-up at the medics recently. They check that my sense of humour is still intact. As I sat there in the waiting-room I read old magazines announcing the sinking of the Titanic and the raising of the iceberg. Why do they always have old magazines at the doctors, hospitals and dentists?

I then turned my attention to the many notices on the wall. Vaccines for this, injections for that, tests for this other problem, potential cures, help and assistance for certain conditions, and so many other illnesses and ailments. As I read I began to realise how fortunate I am, and how much worse things could be for me. There is always someone worse off than us in life, when we focus on what ails us. 

It's an amazing fact in human nature that we get some sort of comfort from the fact that someone else is worse off than us. If we're ill, we compare our illness to that of others to see if their problem is more serious than ours. If we're in a job we don't like, or poorly paid, we compare ourselves to someone unemployed. We always seem to want to be better than others in our misfortunes. 

It's true, whilst sitting there in the waiting-room, I realised how many other potential illnesses I could have by reading the various notices on the boards around me. In a way, I was grateful; I remember saying a thank you prayer at the time.

Then I began to think back on my life. Funny how your mind wonders when you have nothing to do. There have been many occasions when things did not go well for me. I call them milestones in my life. I can almost tell you the dates for each one when it happened. And at every milestone I am now certain that God was there for me. Things could have turned much worse for me. But they didn't; and now you have to suffer the agony of my sense of humour.

But that is life, I suppose. We should live it looking forwards but understanding it backwards.

Every so often we should look back at the milestones in our lives. I'm sure you'll see, with hindsight, that God was there for you too. 

Eventually I was called in at the doctor's insulting room. As I got in, a nun came out crying. I asked the doctor why she was crying. He said he'd told her she was pregnant. I asked him, "Is she really pregnant?" He replied, "No ... but it cured her hiccups!"

You don't have to blow other peoples' candles out for yours to shine.