Hilton Head Island: Why Ships Crash and a tooth

I have just watched a PBS documentary, Why Ships Crash, which I expect will be of interest to most of you.

https://www.pbs.org/video/why-ships-crash-su2sci/?utm_source=whattowatchnews&utm_medium=email&utm_term=mainpromo1&utm_content=20220520&utm_campaign=nova_2022

Mostly this is about the stoppage of the Suez Canal by the EVER GIVEN, but there is more and the observations by those interviewed are intelligent and measured.

During the documentary five world shipping bottle necks are mentioned:  the Panama Canal; the Suez Canal; the English Channel; the Straits of Gibraltar; the Malacca Straits.  I have sailed them all.

My life this week has been dominated by a tooth or perhaps my gums.

I could have designed us better.

Pain is a vague and disruptive warning system.

We should have evolved with a circuit board in our forearms.  Flashing lights.  A beeper.  And you see immediately what has gone wrong.  Try to reset the circuit breaker.  And if that fails investigate the problem.

Instead we have pain, sometimes severe pain, whose specific source cannot be established and which confuses our minds and takes control of our lives.

I had such pain.  I went to a dentist who took x-rays and could not determine the source of the problem.  He prescribed antibiotics in case there was an infection, and an opioid pain killer.  I took the antibiotics.  I filled the prescription for the opioid painkiller but was reluctant to take it.  Instead I continued with Tylenol and martinis.  Today I am much improved.  Pain is no longer dominating my life.  Whether that is through the antibiotics or just my body healing itself I do not know.

I sometimes suspect that this is not the best of all possible worlds.