Ego Dialogues

Caduceus & The Rod of Asclepius

Healers or merchants and thieves?
Almost anyone knows this very wide spread symbol, so often used in connection with medicine and health:

It is called the Caduceus.

However….

A caduceus (/kəˈduːsiəs/, -ʃəs, -ˈdjuː-; kerykeion in Greek) is a (sometimes) winged staff with two snakes wrapped around it. It was an ancient astrological symbol of commerce and is associated with the Greek god Hermes, the messenger for the gods, conductor of the dead and protector of merchants and thieves.

It was originally a herald’s staff, sometimes with wings, with two white ribbons attached. The ribbons eventually evolved into snakes. It is sometimes mistakenly used as a symbol for medicine, by those confusing it with the rod of Asclepius, which features only a single snake and no wings.

Reference: Wikipedia

The rod of Asclepius (also known as the rod of Asklepios, rod of Aesculapius or asklepian[1]) is an ancient Greek symbol associated with astrology and with healing the sick through medicine. It consists of a serpent entwined around a staff. Asclepius, the son of Apollo, was practitioner of medicine in ancient Greek mythology.

The Rod of Asclepius
looks like this:

The power of
symbolism
and the human
subconscious…

PS: Run an image search on any search engine for “medical symbol” and see which of the 2 symbols above is more common. It’s pretty incredible…

- Live image search for medical symbol
- Google image search for medical symbol
- Yahoo image search for medical symbol

So, clearly the health industry rather associates itself (or is associated) with the symbol for commerce, “protector of merchants and thieves”, than with the symbol that actually stands for healing the sick.

Quotes on Honesty

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

Socrates

Honesty: The best of all the lost arts.
Mark Twain

Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense.

Steve Landesberg

Honest people are easily deceived.
Anonymous

What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
Thomas Jefferson

No legacy is so rich as honesty.

William Shakespeare

Honesty is the cruelest game of all,
because not only can you hurt someone – and hurt them to the bone

- you can feel self-righteous about it at the same time.

Dave Van Ronk

He who is passionate and hasty, is generally honest;

it is your cool dissembling hypocrite, of whom you should beware.

Proverb

We must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children
that honesty is the best policy.
George Bernard Shaw

Where is there dignity unless there is honesty?

Cicero

A lie has speed, but truth has endurance.
Edgar J. Mohn

Australian Humor

No idea if these questions (and answers) are real or not, but they are funny at any rate. The questions were supposedly posted on an Australian Tourism website and answered by helpful Australians.

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in Australia? (USA)
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.

Q: Are there killer bees in Australia? (Germany)
A: Not yet, but for you, we’ll import them.

Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter gatherers. Milk is illegal.

Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in Australia? Can you send me a list of them in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville and Hervey Bay? (UK)
A: What did your last slave die of?

Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? (USA)
A: Depends how much you’ve been drinking.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys’ Choir schedule? (USA)
A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is…oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Kings Cross, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.

Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia? I have never seen it rain on TV, so how do the plants grow? (UK)
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.

When you are old

When you are old
A poem by William Butler Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

PS: You can vote for this poem on Deep Spirits.

The Road not Taken

Beaver Pond Paradise, painting by Michele Pope Melina

The Road not Taken
Poem by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The King & 3 Sons

Here is a short story or an educational anecdote about honesty.

A wise King wants an honest child to take his place on the throne.

He gives each of his 3 sons a pack of flower seeds and tells them that the one who grows the most beautiful flowers from these seeds will have his throne.

Six months pass and the king checks the flowers.

The first 2 had beautiful flower beds while the last child had nothing in his plot but weeds and no flowers.

Yet, the king chose this child to have the throne.
Why?

Because…

The 3rd son was the only one that didn’t cheat. The King had baked the seeds so they wouldn’t grow, which means the first 2 didn’t use the seeds from the packet he gave them.

Jennifer Connelly

Personal memo:
My nephew Beni said “Bina!” when he saw this cover picture. That was nice, considering my personal opinion of her looks.