Have you ever heard a phrase or a saying hundreds of times and never really heard it? Then one day you hear it again...and...wow!

That's what happened to me.

I had to work last night. All alone in the guard shack from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., I decided to turn the radio on. It was just loud enough for me to sing along with the oldies, but not so loud that I couldn't hear myself think.

And then it happened! It was probably 3 or 4 in the morning, and by that time I was only half listening to the radio anyway, but suddenly I heard something that made me drop what I was doing. It was those words...I had heard them so many times before and never really listened: Pay the farmer, or pay the doctor. I don't think they were song lyrics; possibly an advertisement, I don't remember that part. But, I scribbled the words in the margin of the paper I was working on in case I forgot them again.

Pay the farmer or pay the doctor.

Hasn't that what I have been saying all along; the very reason I will not go to a doctor...the foods we eat can heal us better than any drugs that are prescribed. The strongest medicine I take is White Willow Bark. It goes with everything. There are no side effects. I don't know many doctors that will write a prescription for a head of lettuce, a bunch of carrots, or cucumbers, and I don't think it will be happening any time soon.

I have heard of cultures where the patient pays the doctor to keep him (or her) well. If the patient becomes sick then the doctor pays the patient. Sounds good to me! I know I am not alone when I say that I am watching my 88 year old mother being kept alive by countless drugs that are paid for (in part) by the state. Without the drugs, she would die. But she is also living in constant fear of Medical reforms or reductions which would mean that she would have to pay for the drugs out of her fixed income. I refuse to live like that when I am her age.

If the state has enough money for all these drugs they are passing out to the elderly and others in need, then surely the state could (instead) pay for these people to have a fresh salad every day. It would be better for them, and probably less expensive. That way the farmer has a chance to grow more food for everyone instead of watching his fields go bare.

Don't get me wrong: I am not suggesting that we pay ten dollars a pound for roma tomatoes (for example), just because it is less expensive then an office visit, but, then again....