Reminiscence and the GNP?

Not much personal health news to report today. A surprise email a couple days back from David Harrington started me reminiscing about Camp Fish (circa 1980-1984) so last night I called Don Pursch to catch up on news. Don was facilities manager at the camp in the years that I was program director. Turns out quite a few old staff members stay in touch one way or another so I sense a re-union coming sometime soon (hint, hint to any that might read this!). I was saddened by Don's news that Jim Teragawa, who came from Mpls. to Walker in the early 80s to help us remodel cabins etc. and ended up staying in the area, had recently died of complications from cancer. Jim had some sort of tennis-ball size tumor removed from his neck (!!) a while back but I suspect it was a different variety than what I had. In any case, Jim's fate again reminded me of the seriousness of this disease (or set of related diseases) and the brevity of life -- it truly is a thing of beauty in its moment. Turns out Don himself also had a recent bout with skin cancer (similar to that which brother-in-law Bruce is currently battling) but it sounded like he had made a full recovery. Regrettably, skin cancer is an occupational hazard of passionate anglers and fishing guides and this will only get worse as concentrations of UV blocking ozone in the stratosphere continue to decline. I've pretty much tried to avoid being on the water within a few of hours of local noon for the past several summers and encourage other to do the same.

The statistic that one in three Americans will get some form of cancer in their lifetime is taking on too many familiar faces for me and this move from the abstract to the concrete is maddening to say the least. It is high time for economists (and the idiot politicians they have seduced) to wake up and smell their stinking assumptions. Mindless pursuit of economic growth for its own sake is threatening this wonderous planet and its amazing diversity of residents. In the simplistic minds of those champions of global capitalism, dollars spent on cancer treatment are good for the gross national product (that truly is GROSS!). Under our current system of tallying up economic activity, every dollar spent is viewed as a good thing. Such are the ridiculous assumptions of (most) economists. As, the MediaWatch Foundation puts it, "if we are to survive economists must learn to subtract!"/dps