Contrasts

         Friday four of us drove to Tucson to be part of a medical exam by a Tibetan doctor. It all seemed perfectly natural that my cousin , K who has become my consort , and a good friend  B who is interested in Tibetan healing arts should all have a field trip to the Doctor.
        The office was a beautiful residential retreat in Northwest Tucson and the Doctor a seventh generation Tibetan physician. She dressed in a purple outfit complete with gold high heel shoes and conducted the process in an hour long interview in which she took several different pulses , from holding my arm.
        THe diagnosis was that I have too much heat in the system and need to reduce it. To preserve the organ that is most under stress , the liver , a regime of cooling foods less strenuous exercise, meditations that  involve gentleness , and taking some pills would be advisable.
         While this all sounds quite banal  the sense of healing that each of us was being part of was palpable.
         Contrasting is the visit to the cardiologist two days earlier. In it my cousin and my ex joined me at a doctors office where the first part of the healing process involved making copies of my insurance card and drivers license , filling out a form which asked several of the same questions that I had answered on the previous form , and then waiting in a small cubicle for the physician.
         The physician impressed me as a kind man who did his work more for the purpose of healing than that of padding his wallet , He also was very straightforward about the risks that were incurred by taking the drugs that the doctors were prescribing . Words such as diabetes, high blood pressure , and  heart attack were among the deleterious consequences. Excellent warnings but hardly uplifting.
          He reiterated what I already knew in that saying in the best condition possible was the best way to stay healthy.
          What my insight tells me is that his knowledge is partial as all knowledge must be and that my own path must be created by me not in defiance of the medical culture but as a guide to those who wish to heal.