（外文电子版资料）Orson Scott Card - Heal Thyself.pdf

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruiswijk/Mijn%20documenten/spaar/Orson%20Scott%20Card%20-%20Heal%20Thyself.txt HEAL THYSELF by Orson Scott Card Theres a limit to how much you can shield your children from the harsh realities of life. But you cant blame parents who try. Especially when its something you have to go out of your way to discuss. My parents assure me that they would have talked about it someday, but its not like the birds and the bees-theres not a certain age when you have to know. They were letting it slide. I was a curious kid. I had already asked questions that could have led there. They dodged. They waffled. I understand. But then my childhood friend, Elizio, died of complications from his leukemia vaccination. I had been given mine on the same day, right after him, after jostling in line for twenty-minutes with the rest of our class of ten-year-olds. Nobody else got sick. We didnt know anything was wrong with Elizio, either, not for months. And then the radiation and the chemotherapy; primitive holdovers from an era when medicine was almost indistinguishable from the tortures of the Inquisition. Nothing worked. Elizio died. He was eleven by then. A slow passage into the grave. And I demanded to know why. They started to talk about God, but I told them I knew about heaven and I wasnt worried about Elizios soul. I wanted to know why there wasnt some better way to prevent diseases than infecting us with semi-killed pseudoviruses mixed with antigen stimulants. Was this the best the human race could do? Didnt God give us brains so we could solve these things? Oh, I was full of righteous wrath. That was when they told me that it was time for me to take a trip to the North American Wild Animal Park What did that have to do with my question? It will all become clear, they said. But I should see with my own eyes. Thus they turned from telling me nothing to telling me everything. Were they wise? I know this much: I