When I was a kid my parents had this Reader’s Digest medical book on the shelf and it let you self-diagnose your ailments. And every time I had a sniffle or ingrown toenail or headache I turned to that book and followed the flow-charts and inevitably by the end of each I knew I was dying. Cancer! Heart attack! Ruptured spleen! Hypochondria bloomed like grave flowers. And now I see a thousand ways I could die and I fear each of them every day.
Anonymous
