the things you learn!

I went to see Marcy today and she was running a little late. Usually I'm only sitting in her waiting area long enough to take off my coat, shut my cell phone off, check to make sure I have correct change to pay her, and perhaps have a drink of water. Today, though, I finished all that and then started perusing the reading material. Oh, she's got the usual current Boston Magazine and Newsweek and Self that you'd expect in an up(per)scale waiting room (as opposed to, say, the three year old Martha Stewart mag I was looking at when D got his lab work done the other day). But she also had this:

In case you forgot your reading glasses, that's Tibetan Medicine Cards: Illustrations and Text from the Blue Beryl Treatise of Sangye Gyamtso (1653-1705).

OMG. I only wish I had a notebook with me into which I could've copied quotes, because...OMG. Lemme just share what I can remember. Prognostic omens: if the message is delivered by a hermaphrodite, a person riding a camel, or someone carrying a stone for no reason, the prognosis is NOT GOOD. Now, it was unclear. I don't know if the omen refers to, like, a dream or vision, or if it's supposed to be an actual messenger. I'm guessing probably the former, because seriously? how many hermaphrodites were there running around 17th century Tibet? But perhaps there was a lot of inbreeding. Birth defects n' shit. Also, I'm unsure what happens if the messenger was a hermaphrodite *on a camel*, but I'm thinking it meant you better draw up your will pronto.

Honestly, I wish I could remember more.

And, yeah, I know. Four hundred years from now someone will be reading a medical textbook from 2010 North America and laughing their fucking ass off. Truth.

xoxo