Don't change on one opinion

Thank goodness it was a false alarm. Mom went to the hospital the other day with chest pains. After a slew of tests she was sent back home and told she was fine even though she still hurt.
Another false alarm came the next day after she called and asked if I could come down and spend a couple hours with her. She was still having intermittent pain but nothing that indicated another heart attack. Once she was convinced she was not in any immediate danger she sent me home.
On the way home I was listening to the radio and I heard John Lennon singing, “Imagine.” I sang along and after the song was over I thought about how times had changed. When the song first came out it was scandalous to even suggest that one could “Imagine there’s no heaven …”
A few weeks ago we watched a television show hosted by Stephen Hawking, an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist. It was titled “Did God Create the Universe?”
Hawking is thought by many to be a genius in the field of cosmology. After all was said and done he concluded that there was not only no heaven, but also no God.
Scientists disbelieving in God is not new. But there was no outcry over Hawking’s conclusions. Nobody made headlines by demanding that Hawking retract his opinion. I didn’t hear any religious leaders calling for a jihad against such blasphemy. In fact, I didn’t hear any reaction at all about the television show.
Have we finally progressed to the point where we can agree to disagree? Probably not, but I’m guessing that people’s beliefs will not be changed by the opinions of one man, no matter how brilliant the man, nor how convincing the arguments.
Just like nobody will change their opinions about the existence or nonexistence of God because of the conclusions of one guy, my mother remains convinced that something is wrong even though test after test comes back normal.
Belief is a powerful thing. In spite of all his genius and all of his proof I honestly doubt if Hawking changed anybody’s mind. In spite of all their learning and all their experience doctors cannot change my mother’s mind about the state of her health.
We expect doctors to know about everything that can go wrong with people. More importantly, we expect them to know how to fix everything that can go wrong with the human body and mind. We forget that doctors are people, too. They don’t and cannot know everything.
Media constantly urges us to call a particular phone number or ask our doctors about a drug that promises to cure whatever ails us. It is only in the tiny print that we are told that the drug in question may or may not be suitable for us.
The implication is that everything can be cured. Media and sometimes doctors tell us that if only we eat right and exercise, our bodies can be restored to the health we once had.
I think this is as foolish as can be. Of course eating right and exercising will help us function more efficiently but the hard truth is that everybody dies. At some point everybody hurts. We acquire diseases through no fault of our own. Our bodies malfunction. It happens.
Perhaps if we concentrated less on trying to feel as strong and healthy as we were when we were young we might be better able to adjust to the changes in our bodies as we age. It might be easier to discern when aches and pains are normal for us and when to worry about it.
All I can say is thank God for false alarms and hope that the next time Mom ends up in the hospital it isn’t serious. Maybe next time John Lennon’s song comes on the radio I’ll change the words to, “Imagine Mom’s all right …”[[In-content Ad]]