Sometimes when and where you least expect it, answers to our most complicated questions are revealed and we are left to wonder why we didn't think of them sooner.
For the Obama administration and all of our "elected" legislators, the plan for our so-called national health care issue has been found in Italy.
The Italians, (who have not been able to maintain a stable government in decades, if ever) just might be able to provide the United States, (where a stable government can't seem to find answers to fairly direct issues), guidance for dealing with our national health care dilemma.
Sicilian professor of pathological anatomy, Vito Franco of the University of Palermo, is a medical expert in the "study of famous subjects of Renaissance artworks", according to a story by Jeff Israely on TIME.com, January 9, 2010. Professor Franco studies the characters in famous master paintings and presented his conclusions of their illnesses at a congress on human pathology last fall (2009) in Florence, Italy.
Professor Franco has concluded that Mona Lisa suffered from xanthelasma, which is the accumulation of cholesterol under the skin. Who knew? From the painting he determined that she had a fatty tissue tumor called lipoma on her right hand. And that diagnosis without x-ray!
Think of all the money the health care industry could save with more "medical experts" like the good Professor Franco. Imagine the savings workers could enjoy with lower insurance costs. Corporations could save millions (billions?) of dollars each year on
coverage for workers. All it would require is a canvas, a brush, oil paints, a trained eye and good glasses!
Now if Professor Franco could only tell us how to diagnose a bloated bureaucracy.
©2010, 2011 by R. Burnett Baker
Top Mona Lisa photo courtesy of Tess Kincaid .
Bottom painting: "Mona Lisa at 12" by Fernando Botero, 1978.
Essay originally published on Baker'sTake January 10, 2010.
This is fantastic; not being American I can't fully understand your politics but I certainly understand what you are saying. This is well written and I love your second Mona Lisa.
ReplyDeleteHa! Let's try it.
ReplyDeleteThat was a very interesting post, isn't that clever?
ReplyDeleteWishing them luck diagnosing your beauracratic system, send them here to Ireland when they have finished.
Well, Rick...good luck with that! A very clever piece of satire...and a sad commentary on the inefficiencies in government....well done! Vb
ReplyDeleteGreat post ... but not in my lifetime I fear.
ReplyDeleteLike most poets, sir, you are a
ReplyDeletedreamer, a wit, and a muckraker.
Wonderful magpie. It sums up,
it offers solutions, it tickles us
where the sun don't shine.
And Miss Lisa at 12 is worth the
price of admission. Others have
felt she had palsy or was a high
priced tart. Da Vinci was a poof,
and he never delivered the painting
to Lisa, if she commissioned it.
if only DaVinci was alive to read this :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent article, Rick. Love the Botero Mona.
ReplyDeleteThis is brilliant and bravely truthful Rick....thank you for sharing! :-)
ReplyDeleteVery cool!!! You have an interesting mind! Hope you are enjoying Texas.
ReplyDeletesmiles, this is superb, wholesome message.
ReplyDelete:)
Greetings,
ReplyDeleteWelcome join us,
Thanks for the time, a free verse is accepted,
Your poetry rocks. Hope to see you in
xx