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Treat Your Human Body Like You Treat Your Car
My friend Janet has a bad wound on her leg. It has been there for two months, and just looks worse and worse. Now it looks so bad she doesn’t even want to leave the house. “What does your doctor say about it?” I asked her. “I’ve been back to him five times!”, she responded. “He keeps giving me antibiotics, but it doesn’t seem to get any better.” “Five times???” I asked her, incredulously. It was time for “the talk” with Janet. … the talk in which I use my auto mechanic metaphor; the one that goes like this: You’re headed to work, and all of a sudden you car starts up with a squealing noise right under the hood. You take it to your mechanic who tells you he’ll fix it, and to come back to get it tomorrow. You pick up your car the next day, and aren’t even halfway home when it begins squealing again. So you turn right around and return to your mechanic. “It’s still making that noise!” you tell him. “OK – sorry – leave it with me and pick it up tomorrow.” The next day you return to pick up your car again. Your mechanic apologizes, says he’s sure he’s got it this time, and sends you on your way with what you believe is your non-squealing car. You get all the way home – no problem, no squeal. But the next morning you leave for work and – arghgh! – your car is squealing again! Now – your mechanic, who you love so much it’s like he’s part of the family, has had two opportunities to fix it, has sworn both times it was fixed, but you still have a squealing car. What do you do? It has cost you time and money to no benefit so far. But should you return – again? – to your favorite mechanic? Can you trust him THIS time? The answer is… (drum roll….) IT DEPENDS. It depends on how negative the impact is on your life if you keep going back. In the case of my car, I MIGHT go back one more time and tell him “I’m willing to give you one more chance, but then, I hope you’ll understand that I’m going to have to try someone else if you can’t get rid of that squeal this time.” But in the case of…