Dear Rosemary,

Re: "I don't recall that Swamiji had any issues with his feet"

Well, he was a rather young man, and kept his weight under control....plus, he
had scrupulously clean habits. My eldest daughter is an Endocrinologist. She
would know a lot more than me about those things.

Swamiji's wish to give up his body on the Great American Holiday,
is very much in keeping with his opinion about the country, as is illustrated
in these quotes:

"Yesterday Mrs. Johnson, the lady superintendent of the women's prison, was here.
They don't call it prison but reformatory here. It is the grandest thing I have
seen in America. How the inmates are benevolently treated, how they are reformed
and sent back as useful members of society; how grand, how beautiful, you must see
to believe! And, oh, how my heart ached to think of what we think of the poor,
the low, in India. They have no chance, no escape, no way to climb up."

"There is a curiosity in this nation, such as you meet with nowhere else. They want
to know everything, and their women— they are the most advanced in the world. The
average American woman is far more cultivated than the average American man. The men
slave all their life for money, and the women snatch every opportunity to improve
themselves. And they are a very kind-hearted, frank people. Everybody who has a
fad to preach comes here, and I am sorry to say that most of these are not sound.
The Americans have their faults too, and what nation has not? But this is my summing
up: Asia laid the germs of civilization, Europe developed man, and America is
developing the woman and the masses. It is the paradise of the woman and the labourer.
Now contrast the American masses and women with ours, and you get the idea at once.
The Americans are fast becoming liberal. Judge them not by the specimens of
hard-shelled Christians(it is their own phrase) that you see in India. There are those
here too, but their number is decreasing rapidly, and this great nation is progressing
fast towards that spirituality which is the standard boast of the Hindu."

I remember reading somewhere of Swamiji's impressions when he visited Ellis Island
near NYC. He noticed how downcast the immigrants looked when they came off the boat;
and yet, in a few short weeks, they walked with new spring in their step, shoulders
back, and head held high. God Bless America!

Om Shanthi Om
=============

Dear Tom,

I am not a Doctor, and your daughter would know whether or not diabetes could kill you before it got your feet. I just know my two cousins (luckily on opposite sides of the family, and inherited through the opposite parents from my nuclear family)have both got extreme feet trouble, and they are clean and that it started young, and with insulin to boot!!

Also, I had a friend in grade school that had diabetes and his was childhood-onset, and he would go into diabetic comas and stuff. I just don't recall that Swamiji went into comas.

Of course, he did go in to at least two very deep trances that I have read about thus far. One time it was at Camp Percy while he was meditating under a tree, and Joe thought he was dead and ran to get help. It took a few minutes for him to rouse up, but he was unresponsive long enough to alarm Joe.

I went in to a coma once when I was 5 years old. I don't remember it and didn't know about it until I read it in my medical chart. My Mom couldn't wake me up, and she carried me to the hospital where they stuck pins in my feet. Somehow, I eventually came out of it.

Since I have been wrong enough times in my life, I never try to belabor a point and say that I am right anymore. These are just my own discriminative skills which might be proven wrong under any star or any juncture of time.

Still, I think you are right that Swamiji just didn't feel good after or perhaps even during, his second trip to America.


I'm looking forward to receiving my new book on the Leggett family, but this book on Tantine is keeping me mesmerized!!

It's cold here today and the pollen and white tree blossoms are flying around thick enough to look like it's snowing. We're all sneezing and have sinus headaches, too.


Yours,
Rosemary

Location: North Carolina

Dear Rosemary,

Like I mentioned, I don't know much about Diabetes. Firstly, I don't even
know whether Swamiji had 'type 2' Diabetes, or childhood onset.

Then again, I don't think that they knew too much about the disease,
before the discovery of insulin.

Here is a pertinent quote:

"Before the discovery of insulin, diabetes was a feared disease that most
certainly led to death. Doctors knew that sugar worsened the condition of diabetic
patients and that the most effective treatment was to put the patients on very
strict diets where sugar intake was kept to a minimum. At best, this treatment
could buy patients a few extra years, but it never saved them. In some cases,
the harsh diets even caused patients to die of starvation."

More information HERE

You may listen to a radio interview with my daughter, by searching (without quotes)
the following phrase, "Dr. Lipscombe discusses diabetes and women"; on the following page:
www.womenscollegehospital.ca/news/wch-in-the-media.html
and then by clicking on the audio link.

Interesting you note Swamiji's deep trances, possibly being attributed to Diabetic
coma. Anything is possible.

That is an amazing story, about how you went into an unexplained coma at the age
of five. That must have really scared your parents.

Regarding the pollen and white tree blossoms flying around....I don't suffer from
allergies, but I know people who do; and it's a serious problem. My late father
used to have 'hay fever', though.

Om Shanthi Om
=============

Here is an easier way to access the radio interview
with my daughter, entitled: "Dr. Lipscombe Discusses
Diabetes and Women" (as mentioned in the previous posting).

Simply click on the banner below: