Dear Andrea,

After meeting you, I gotta say something. I can't keep it in. You are too interesting.

First off, you are very smart and sassy for your age and I know that those two characteristics will make you a strong and brilliant women one day. 

You're better at legos than I am. You built that birthday cake in minutes, and if given just a little more time, you would have built that rescue ax too. You like to challenge yourself. You even said "if I don't try the hard stuff, how am I gonna learn?" Wise words, Andrea. Wise words.

You are a hands-on person and you like to learn new things. You picked up that juggling book and out of nowhere and you decided that you would learn to juggle. While it may have been inappropriate to throw around paper balls at the church, I know you will practice when you get home.

You may not have the strongest family system. You don't have a consistent Daddy any your Momma is a very busy lady just trying to pay the bills. And maybe your older brother can be a bit of a dolt sometimes, but you know what? You got beauty, brains, and brawn to overcome it all. A strong women is one who can build a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at her.

And I'll be there for you to hand you those bricks, just as I did the lego pieces. And once again, I will stand amazed at what you can build. 

Sincerely, 

Your mentor,

Sufia

"Historians are bad communicators of their diligent research. 

Politicians are diligent communicators of their bad research"

-Sufia

This is why problems exist.
The silence of our wisdom is lost with the noise of our politics.

Historians, speak up! Connect with scientists. Connect with doctors. Connect with engineers. Connect with lawmakers. And most importantly, connect with the common people!

In our lovely democracy, the common people are capable of the most change.

Why do I write about this write now?

Today I attended a medical history book club at Case Western Reserve University's historical Dittrick Medical Museum. It was great. Enlightening, I felt apart of an elitist club,

The problem? Historians were communicating their observations with fellow historians. What good does this do?

If we were to confer back to MBTI, then historical societies are simply groups of perceivers who like to sit around and think about interesting things, but lack the desire to do much about the world's problems.

Most people are Judgers. They are doers. So perceivers, please educate the doers on what we should do. Its your societal contribution.

Sorry this post is so crappy. I'm starving and have this terrible migraine.

Which brings up a question: Is the mood of an INTP highly dependent on his or her physical condition? Because when I am just slightly hungry I get moody and all my cognitive functions are pretty much hopeless. Thoughts?

So Death is a Disease and the Human Body is Flawed...Right.

A riposte on anti-aging research. (Read my former post)

The average consumer with private insurance now spends more on anti-aging prescriptions than they do on medications to treat actual chronic diseases, according to the American Public Health Association.

The lengths we take to defy the natural effects of aging - slowing mental alertness, sexual dysfunction, menopause, aging skin, balding, etc.- signal a shift in the social perception of aging. These ailments are thought to be the symptoms of a progressive degenerative disease that without treatment can lead to *gasp* death.

This looming fear of death has justified a market for anti-aging research. Scientists our now looking within the human body to extend life.  We are treating the natural changes in hormone levels and gene expression as we did bad sanitation - as flaws worthy of manipulation. We frame life-shortening genes as though suspects of murder. When in reality, they are considerate executioners of a body about to suffer the ailments of inevitable death. 

I think it is extremely dangerous to challenge the wisdom of our body mechanics, whether you believe it has been created from God's perfection or from evolution's pursuit of perfection. 

Maybe as a young mind and body I am in no position to judge our changing perceptions of aging. But it just seems silly to me to spend billions of dollars worth of research to delay something as inevitable of death.  Maybe it is just the inner Camus (whom I am reading now) that is speaking. I highly recommend his classic existentialist novel, The Stranger, in which he states:

Bottom-line: the purpose of medicine is to manipulate the biochemistry of an unhealthy body so that it may become normal again. Death isn't abnormal or avoiadable. Let's stop treating it like a disease.

Thought is liberating. We should try it.

"Men fear Thought as they fear nothing else on Earth - more than ruin -more even than death...Though is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man."

-Bertrand Russell

British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, social critic and political activist