Yes, We're Vulnerable

According to the survey that's been up for the past 10 days, it was emotions that were hurting, not arthritis, since September 11, with 63 percent of respondents checking this box. Fourteen percent said they've been aching from all the stress, followed by ten percent each who said it didn't affect their arthritis at all, and that they've been taking more medication. If you live in the New York area, the shock wears off slowly, and when you look and don't see the familiar World Trade Center, it's still unbelievable. The same is true for the Pentagon, and in another time, the Federal building in Oklahoma City. Floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and other natural disasters provoke the same feelings, but this time we have additional stress. We're at war. I've been through a war, so there are some familiar occurrences, like the 60 Minutes segment on just how vulnerable the nuclear power plants are. The conclusion was that they are very safe and virtually immune from a suicide bombing by a commercial jet. What is familiar is the type of story. It helped calm us and that's what we were looking for. The government agencies were ready to help allay fears.

We say it's not a religious war, and it's not just your garden variety religious war. It's a religious extremists' war. Both sides are invoking their God for credibility, and this is different from the Gulf War and the Viet Nam War. God wasn't on anyone's side then. Now he's on both sides, apparently.

We're all slowing down a little, especially us old dogs with creakyjoints. It's just a little harder to do the things that weren't so hard yesterday. I knew a Bosnian dog once who lived most of his life in Bosnia. He was serious while we were playful puppies. He was cautious while we were careless. He smelled of stress, and I smell that now in my friends.

We all answered the survey last week, and most of us admitted our vulnerability in one way or another. This week we learn more about how to deal with it.