Fruits and Vegetables

For my father, every problem in the world can be solved with fruit and vegetables. Feeling low? Here's an apple. Nervous about school? Broccoli with lemon. Dinner at his apartment was like a cooking show for my soul, and every dinner had three constant elements: applesauce, broccoli, and sauerkraut.

Sauerkraut is one of those mysterious foods that appears when you need it and at no other time. Got a hot dog in your hand? Chances are there is sauerkraut within 10 feet of you. Are you inside a festival tent? Chance of Sauerkraut is like 97%. I didn't even know you could buy sauerkraut. I used to think that, like pierogies, the food was constructed in some kind of arcane, ethnic process that grandparents only whispered to each other. But, apparently, you can buy sauerkraut in a jar. Then you can heat it in a bowl, put it next to the broccoli and the applesauce, and within 20 minutes you will have at least solved the one problem you went into dinner with, namely the munchies.

I've been thinking a lot about health care. This is probably because I don't have any. My fabulous coverage through Pitt expired on July 14, and ever since all I can do is picture myself as that guy in SiCKO who has to choose which one of his fingers to have reattached: the one for $60,000, or the one for $5,000.

I don't do well with politics. By my nature I am someone who tries to create harmony, happiness, and though politics at its best is in the pursuit of harmony, all it really seems like now is one big obstreperous mess. The system, which was designed as self-correcting, had some of its balancing protocols removed in the search for more authority, and now We The People have forgotten that, wait a minute, these shmucks work for us, and we've always wanted to say, "You're fired!"

In the same way that supporting Bush has become something of a lead weight in polite conversation, I hope that the debate over health care, and the people standing in the way of a solution, lose similar face in the public consciousness. It doesn't sound that radical to say, "You know what? I think these kids deserve to grow up healthy. I don't mind spending a few dollars for that." Any of us, any decent person wants to see those around them healthy, if for nothing other than our own sanity. I don't know about you, but I find sick people obnoxious. I know I'm a pain in the butt when I don't feel well, and if you don't have your health, well, you don't have much of anything.

So. Go see SiCKO. Take friends. It is eye-opening. And even though it's only one side of the story, it's not like Moore is telling you anything you don't know in your gut, and it's a side of the story whose time has come to tell. That creeping feeling in your gut is not going to get better.

In the meantime, I'm going to find some individual coverage. Hopefully they don't find out about my pre-existing broccoli allergy. I guess there are some problems in the world even a spritz of lemon can't fix.

-m