Speaking of being in a parallel universe, I was visiting my cardiologist when I heard him say, “Have you considered marijuana?”

Was I in the Twilight Zone? No, what we dreamed of in our youth has become real. There have got to be easily a dozen cannabis dispensaries in this little town. It was simply a bit jarring hearing my cardiologist suggesting pot as a perfect drug. Sometimes the most unreal thing can be reality.

I grew up in a world where getting busted for having a couple of joints in your pocket could land you in jail for a long time. A world in which marijuana was thought by the blind and stupid as a gateway drug to a life of dissipation and degradation. Which would end with you face down in a gutter in some part of town where even the cops won’t go. I think that booze will do that and except for our brief sojourn into prohibition, it was always legal.

Pot won’t land you in the gutter, but it can put you soundly to sleep. Today I live in a world where doctors recommend pot. For everything or just for fun because yes, it’s not just medical anymore. It’s also just for the heck of it.

My mother was born in 1910. A child during World War 1, married during World War 2, she saw the emergence of the automobile, the building of our system of roads, electricity everywhere. She saw the first TV, then cable TV, computers becoming a thing everyone had in their home. From a horse-drawn world to men walking on the moon, she saw an astonishing amount of change in her lifetime — and it wasn’t a long life, either.

By the time she passed, there were two or more cars in every driveway and yet we still hand a mangle washing machine in our basement — probably officially an antique now. I remember when I was maybe 9 or 10 and shouted, “Oh look, a horse and cart!”

Mom looked bemused. “When I was your age,” she said, “We used to shout “Oh look, a motor-car!”

And today, my cardiologist suggested I use cannabis. What a world, eh?

Categories: #American-history, #Health, #Photography, Anecdote, Medical, Medical humor, Technology

Tags: history, humor, marijuana, medical marijuana, mother, nostalgia, pot, smoking pot