Health Wisdom

     Two friends have very different attitudes to health, and what to do when poorly; matters of medication, diet, sleeping, rising.

     He believes in doing what feel right at the time. For example, to rest when tired, to sleep when sleepy, fast when he has no appetite, eat fruit when the mood dictates, drink water when thirsty. He has a rationale; "the body knows", after millennia of evolution; witness the wisdom of those dumb animals that eat grass when deficient in something or other, without having a name for the missing vitamin. 

     His friend favours almost the opposite; the unexpected; the option that would not occur to the average person. She also has a rationale. She values the wisdom of the ancestors, and is careful to remember it,  and to transmit it to the next generation. If chicken soup with rice is the "right thing" for an upset stomach, the very fact that you resist is taken as proof that the recommendation comes from a deeper source.

     Of course, there is a further point in favour of her inherited wisdom, for she is the priestess that mediates between the past and the present, she remembers the strange recipes. 

     Just as there is point in his notion of following his immediate inclination, for that doctrine puts him in charge; who else knows?