Dr. Jenner’s Experiment

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  “March 28th, 1797, I inoculated this girl and carefully rubbed the variolous matter into two slight incisions made upon the left arm. A little inflammation appeared in the usual manner around the parts where the matter was inserted, but so early as the fifth day it vanished entirely without producing any effect on the system.” —Edward Jenner (1749–1823). “The Three Original Publications on Vaccination Against Smallpox.” Portrait of Edward Jenner, painted by James Northcote in either 1803 or 1823

Smell Those Roses!

 How many times have you done something you did not want to do? It’s easy to do what we plan to do, or like to do. We do things we do not want to do only because those things must be done, as a matter of responsibility, and because we did not plan or like it, it’s easier not to like it, so we make it difficult for ourselves. 

Nobody likes to sit in a traffic jam. We suddenly become late for an appointment, late to work, late for a movie. But what is the cause of the problem? A horrible accident? An overpass sign fell off its scaffold and crashed into the highway below? Construction work? Two of those three options are unavoidable. The last one is. So why complain? Take advantage of the new-found time you always wished you had! Smell those roses!



Upset that your flight is 15 minutes, 30 minutes, late? In some parts of the world, flights are every other day, or less. Is your train a few minutes late? The guy who fell on the tracks might be relieved!

Getting upset or angry at a situation does not make the situation any easier. The situation does not care about what I think or feel. Sure, it’s inconvenient, imposing, but the situation has obligations to meet, and that is all. As the old saying goes, “might as well get happy about it.”

Someone may be in a much worse situation than you find yourself in your little inconvenient one. 

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