"Doctor" Feel Good and the Wheels of God

Remembering back to English class in Groton Connecticut many years ago, I have always fondly remembered a essay or a short story by John Galsworthy the theme of which was "The wheels of God grind slowly but exceedingly small" The premise is that you may get away with something bad for awhile, perhaps even a long while, but eventually God or Justice will catch up to you and you will receive what you deserve. The quote is actually from a German named "Von Logau" and was translated into a poem written by Longfellow. I guess that stands pretty well as testament to the power of Von Logau's original words that two well known authors would later use them in their own works.

It is also interesting how these undoubtedly Christian inspired words and thought so closely parallel as well as reflect the Buddhist concept of "Kharma" - What goes around , comes around.

So what does this have to do with living in Isaan? Actually it has a great deal to do with something that I had previously written about in Mid-October - "Doctor" Feel Good. On October 14th I had written about "Doctor" Feel Good - the man who was performing wondrous things for the health of Lao Loum peasants from his home out in the middle of the rice paddies. He was giving injections to everyone who came to his home. I had gone with a sprained or bruised foot and had great difficulty walking. When he gave an injection of Valium to Duang's cousin who has epilepsy but he had diagnosed with a "bad heart" after listening to her chest and neck, I decided that this was not the "Doctor" for me or for my wife.

The villagers and family members that we had taken with us to see the "Doctor" all had a good laugh at the "Falang", foreigner who was afraid of the "Doctor" who had made them all "better". They all had a good laugh until they all nodded off to sleep on the way back to the village. Over the past month my foot finally got better on its own but I still got teased about how long it took because I didn't let the "Doctor" take care of it. Along with the teasing we heard additional stories of all the people he had helped to "feel better".

This morning we got a phone call from Duang's daughter. She had gone to see the "Doctor" this morning but he was gone. The police had come to complain (charge? arrest? him for what he was doing). The man fled and is apparently hiding out and but still "helping" people from some house further out in the rice paddies. According to Duang's daughter, he will stay hidden for about 7 to 10 days before returning home to resume his "good work". I guess he figures that the police will have forgotten about him during that period of time.

Duang's daughter was laughing and jokingly insinuated that I had called the police about him. That is not true. I am a guest in Thailand and do not want to cause or create problems for anyone.

Just as the wheels of God had finally ground small enough to get to "Doctor" Feel Good or perhaps Kharma had done in the "Doctor", I do not want to bring or create any cause for me to be in the same situation.

Tomorrow, we are off to harvest rice - the family rice that was planted back in July. It should be interesting. Just in time for the harvest the temperatures are up again to 95F (35C).

We had passed on the road trip last week with Duang's brother and his band to Chiang Rai, so tomorrow's harvest will be my first photography effort in awhile.