Monitoring The Pressure By Dr. Juan Harrison
Monitoring The Pressure
As a young Air Force officer traveling from my village in Germany to check on one of my units in Amsterdam, Holland noticing the windmills and dairy cows out the window, I thought of the little Dutch boy. He just about wore himself out trying to keep all the new holes plugged up in the dike. Anyone doing renovation or repair to something has learned that fixing one problem on a house or other contraptions seems to create a new problem sometimes as pressure forces oil or water out another opening in an older item.
That reminded me of the health issues us older folks often face. Frequently it seems like getting a back or knee worked on can result in a new pain as we start favoring another leg or another part of the body that now takes on an added workload. Often tricky back operations end up with the same old pain or an even tougher one.
I’ve known folks who seem to spend a big part of their lives having and recovering from multiple surgeries. Pain is no fun. No pain is a great feeling. Some folks choose to hang on to the gimpy knee or poorly functioning hand. Others try to survive on pain pills and some pain-relieving balm that stinks up the room.
Sometimes the pain can’t be touched by human hands. It may be one stuck in one’s head or heart. It may go back to their youth or young adult days. It might be a love interest or a decision about an unplanned event and a youthful remedy that left a prickly scar of guilt lasting a lifetime.
Sometimes folks come out of tough situations determined to do better or be better or accomplish more than what families expected or anticipated. In their drive to do better and be more successful than they experienced in younger days, they may find the price exacted for loftier goals may require significant tolls not anticipated as they climb the mountain of success. Anything worth having requires a cost or toll. Balancing life’s priorities is a full-time job. If we put too much time and energy into one area of our lives, we may see a proportionate cost in other important areas like family relationships and quality family time.
As I frequently say, there ain’t no free money. In reality, almost anything on earth worth having costs us in some way. In trying to live the American dream and have the all-American family, we must be wise in how much we invest in our goals so as not to create other problems that can totally take away all the joy and pride we took in our initial success. We must constantly be aware of the costs we’re paying for the American dream lest we wake up one day too late as we find ourselves in the middle of the American Nightmare.
By Dr. Juan Harrison
