Day 22- Eating the cookie that came with the coffee

A few years ago while travelling in the Netherlands I visited the museum of medicine. We found it by chance while walking around in a beautiful coastal city. What struck me the most in the fascinating museum was the information on mental health disease and the amount of cases reported in the early nineteen century. To my surprise the museum had telephones in the hallway with direct lines to mental health hospitals and you could call patients that had agreed on being contacted. I was never as disappointed for not being able to speak Dutch, as on that day.My boyfriend at the time said: ‘but that’s using people, doesn't seem fair’.

‘Using people?’ I asked. ‘Have you ever been to a mental institution or even a nursing home, some people just like to talk.’   

For over a year as ‘field work’ for my Anthropology thesis, I regularly called in by an artist’s nursing home in Portugal. The intent was to understand the neurology behind the theory of social death and the role played by memory in the last part of people’s existences. The residents lead fascinating lives as musicians, dancers, actors, opera singers and their life stories were amusing to hear but after the glory and recognition of old times, they all resumed to talking about their current life, the fact that they felt lonely without their families and that they knew they were left there to die. I asked the same questions to each of them and the last one was:’ If you could go back and do something differently what would you change?’

‘I would have stopped pleasing people and be my own self earlier in life’

‘I would have stopped wasting time with people I didn't care about and spend more time with my family’

‘I would have been more careful with my diet as to avoid the diabetes as now I can’t eat a thing ’

‘I would have exercised more and smoked less, maybe now I could still walk’

Once again you are probably thinking...enhmm i remind you that you are supposed to talk about sugar. The blog about sugar isn't only about the consumption of substances that aren't particularly beneficial to your health but also to remind us that there are plenty of things in our day to day lives that we do as absent minded as eating the cookie that came with the coffee. As tomorrow is Sunday and you might have some more time in hands I challenge you to be mindful of what you do and think, monitor each action and interaction and measure how it makes you feel. Imagine you were at the last day of your life and the same question would be asked: ‘What would you do differently, what is really important to you?’