Shorts

Every two weeks, there is a group of people at the office who attempt to go to lunch together. The largest I've ever seen this group involved eight people, or a significant portion of the office. Recently, however, its usually been down to two or three others besides me. Today, we went to Maize's cafe on central and sat outside to eat. Sitting in the shade, with the misters, and the dry desert breeze, it was so hard to head back to the office that we ended up extending our lunch by an hour.

Every day that Saori comes home and tells me about her day, I am reminded of how lucky I am to not only have her, but that we are both relatively young and healthy, we can still run and swim and travel, and that our minds are still our own, relatively untouched by the slow decay of time. It is a constant reminder of the fragility of life, and of the limited duration of time we have it. Every day is a bonus track.

Others are not so fortunate in life. I picked up a large book on the state of the public health around the world, and its pretty interesting but chilling stuff. I was mostly surprised to learn that the vast majority of our increased life expectancy occurred because of changes and innovations before the 20th century, before modern medicine, antibiotics, and vaccinations. Clean water distribution, sanitary sewer systems, pure foods, education, smaller families. All of these urban and cultural achievements as societies advanced and developed vastly increased life span. However, many places in the world still have not reached this point.

This is emphasized in a quote by an AIDS researcher who at a banquet, raised his glass of water and said, essentially, that if HIV could be cured by a simple glass of clean water, it would still be impossible to eradicate HIV in the world because as a global community, we still can't provide it.