Grain Brain [antikvár]

ntroductionAgainst the GrainMaintaining order rather than correcting disorder is the ultimate principle of wisdom. To cure disease after it has appeared is like digging a well when one feels thirsty, or forging weapons after the war has already begun. NEI JING, 2ND CENTURY BCIf you could ask your grandparents or great-grandparents what people died from when they were growing up, you'd likely hear the words "old age." Or you might learn the story of someone who got a nasty germ and passed away prematurely from tuberculosis, cholera, or dysentery. What you won't hear are things like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and dementia. Since the mid-twentieth century, we've had to attribute someone's immediate cause of death to a single disease rather than use the term "old age" on a death certificate. Today, those single diseases tend to be the kind that go on and on in a chronic, degenerating state and involve multiple complications and symptoms that accumulate over time. Which is why eighty- and ninety-year-olds don't usually die from a specific ailment. Like an old house in ongoing disrepair, the materials weather and rust, the plumbing and electrical falter, and the walls begin to crack from tiny fissures you cannot see. Throughout the home's natural decline, you do the needed maintenance wherever necessary. But it will never be like new