Joy 23/82: Health

In mosaic class today there was quite a long discussion about arthritis (which half the class seems to suffer from significantly) and the remedies people were taking (oil of evening primrose seemed to be the favorite).

I may not have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth (a really odd metaphor if you stop and think about it), but was apparently standing in the right line when they handed out healthy genes.  I've generally appreciated my health but, now that I see others contending with the lack of it, I remind myself of how fortunate I am every day.

In looking for quotes about health, I found this one:

“In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties.”
-- Henri Frederic Amiel quotes (Swiss writer known for his masterpiece Journal intime, 1821-1881)

"The first of all liberties ... " I had to ponder that for awhile.  And, even looked up the definition ... here are the pertinent ones from dictionary.com:

3.  freedom from control, interference, obligation, restriction, hampering conditions, etc.; power or right of doing, thinking, speaking, etc., according to choice.
4.  freedom from captivity, confinement, or physical restraint:

I agree with the statement for the most part but every once in a while I think about Stephen Hawking who has reached the ranks of the greatest physicists of all time in spite of being severely disabled by ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) which began when he was 21.  Hawking definitely did not have the "first of all liberties" so it makes me wonder if the first liberty might be our attitude and our determination.

Regardless of whether or not it's the first liberty, I am immensely grateful for my extremely good health.