Tradition

This month I tried to live like a shut-in, with few exceptions like going to work visiting elderly shut-ins and attending educational excursions.  One weekend, I joined Chinese Culture Center’s walking tour out on the alleys and streets of San Francisco Chinatown! After all, San Francisco Chinatown is age-friendly: seniors (age 60+) make up 35% of its residents, while seniors make up 20% of San Francisco’s citywide population. Its seniors are “Chinatown Pretty” -- their thrifty fashionable styles turning heads of passersby. 

“Chinese seniors make the best of urban life and public space …They hold exercise classes in Washington Square Park, play Chinese chess and cards in Portsmouth Square. They utilize farmers markets and neighborhood grocery stores and walk or take public transportation everywhere.“ – Valerie Luu and Andria Lo, photographer and writer of Chinatown Pretty 

“Diligence is the path

Up the mountain of knowledge

Hard work is the boat

Across the endless sea of learning”

This Confucian aphorism, at City College of San Francisco’s Chinatown campus, expresses traditional Chinese values: the emphasis on diligence and hard work in continuous self-cultivation through education, to elevate society for peace on earth! 

Docent Julia holds up Chinese character for king (wang in Mandarin; wong in Cantonese): 3 horizontal strokes represent Heaven, Man and Earth; the vertical stroke is the king, one who connects them together. 

Chinese philosophy is influenced by 3 sages and their distinct reactions to tasting vinegar:

• Confucius with sour face – belief that present world out of harmony with past, so remedy by ethical self-cultivation (jen) and observing codes of human conduct (li)
• Buddha (from India) with bitter face – belief that life is full of suffering, which can be overcome by detachment from desires to attain enlightenment (nirvana)
• Lao Tzu (founder of Taoism) with smiling face - belief that universe is governed by natural laws, which acceptance leads to understanding and peace of mind

These traditional schools of thought influence how we live/age: cultivation, detachment, or acceptance?  (According to Vinegar Connoisseurs International: “Fresh vinegar has a very sharp and biting taste. Its true quality is best revealed by aging. During aging, it becomes more mellow. The esters and ethers of the vinegars are allowed to mature, and many of the finer qualities emerge… The longer it is aged, the more these subtle qualities will developed.”) 

Chinatown incense shop sold symbolic paper cigarettes, dim sum and dental care kit, which are burned during send off of dearly departed into afterlife! Tour included visit inside Buddhist temple, which was smoke-filled so I remained outside for fresh air to avoid triggering a severe allergic reaction … and my thoughts drifted to my gerontology work.  

No longer banished to the southern parts of the City, I now do home visits with seniors in the Central City (South of Market Area and Tenderloin neighborhoods).  One occupational hazard of my work in this area is frequent exposure to second-hand smoke from clients smoking marijuana and/or tobacco. Both plants traditionally have medicinal value, but I can’t handle the lingering smoke even after I request that clients refrain from smoking in my presence.

Medical marijuana 

Seniors, who are increasingly vulnerable to opioid addiction and higher prescription drug costs, are increasingly turning to medical marijuana as an alternative treatment for anxiety, depression, sleep disorders and pain.  

At San Francisco Main Library, Laurie Vollen, MD, of Naturally Healing MD, presented a talk on the science of medicinal marijuana.  She included a historical context of medical marijuana:  Chinese written record of its medical use 4,700 years ago; 100 medical conditions treated with cannabis 2,000 years ago; medical cannabis heads west 300 years ago.  From 1840 to 1930, cannabis was America’s medicine.      

Dr. Vollen has prescribed medical marijuana for patients with conditions such as cancer, headaches, multiple sclerosis, digestive disorders, arthritis, etc.  Marijuana’s effects on humans are analgesic (reduces pain), relaxant (anti-spasmodic), antiolytic (anti-anxiety), soporific (hypnotic), mood enhancer (euphorant), anti-nausea, and anti-convulsant.  Effects depend on dosing the right amount to get relief, not get high: LESS IS MORE, START LOW & GO SLOW.  

Oakland Museum exhibit, Altered State: Marijuana in California, featured section on Medical Marijuana.  Due to marijuana’s listing as a Schedule 1 drug (“dangerous substance with no medical value”) in 1970, it has been difficult to conduct rigorous studies of marijuana that are done for other drugs and medical products.  However, limited studies indicate marijuana use is effective for treating pain, nausea, and perhaps epilepsy. 

Smoke-free options for administering medication include: Vaporizers, Extracts & Tinctures

Treatments that don’t get you stoned: topical lotions (for arthritis), suppositories (for patients unable to eat) and non-psychoactive products (for epilepsy). 

California was the first state to outlaw marijuana in 1913 when lawmakers added it to list of potential drugs of abuse regulated by the Pharmacy Act.  U.S. outlawed marijuana at the national level by the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, despite testimony that “The American Medical Association knows of no evidence that marihuana is a dangerous drug." 

“Return to traditional values”:  In 1971, President Richard Nixon launched the War on Drugs, which was escalated by President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy.  During a visit to a West Oakland elementary school in 1982, First Lady Reagan started “Just Say No” campaign in response to a schoolgirl who asked what to do if she was offered drugs.  Their efforts contributed to mass incarceration of drug offenders, including the school-to-prison pipeline. 

When Dennis Peron’s partner became ill with AIDS in 1980s, he used marijuana to ease his pain and nausea.  After his partner died, Peron advocated for medical marijuana use by authoring our country’s first medical marijuana bill, San Francisco’s Proposition P, which passed in 1991. In 1996, Californians passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, which legalized medicinal use statewide. 42 states and D.C. allow medical marijuana use. 

In 2011, California decriminalized marijuana possession from misdemeanor to infraction.   

Marijuana smells remind me of visits to my high school restroom in Honolulu, which was a popular spot for smoking pot (or pakalolo in Hawaiian)—second-hand smoke that I inadvertently inhaled.

Relief when nature calls: age-friendly public toilets from Biblical times!

I thought about the traditional role of communal toilets in creating a more age-friendly place for shut-in clients with urinary incontinence.  Many clients with enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia), neurogenic bladder or other incontinence issues have agoraphobia due to anxiety over not being able to make it to a toilet in a timely manner; instead, if they must leave home to attend an appointment, some carry a cup to pee in when convenient. 

Since 2002, public urination in San Francisco carries a fine up to $500. Instead of penalizing people who can’t readily access toilets, why not create more options for relief when nature calls? Earlier this year, San Francisco installed its first open air urinal with splash screen and plants for privacy in Dolores Park.  In April, Pacific Justice Institute filed a lawsuit over the $15,000 pissoir, alleging violations of privacy, disability access, basic health and safety laws.  

Until the 1800s, there was little expectation of privacy when using the bathroom. In ancient Greco-Roman Empire, large-scale public latrines were unisex and communal.

Corinth (Greece) – seat on long bench, next to plant (not cannabis).  Toilet holes were round with keyhole shape to allow users to insert sponge-tipped stick (predecessor of modern toilet paper) for cleaning--below my feet is trough for flowing water to dip sponge; in absence of water, salt water or vinegar was used.  Since then, knowledge of public health sanitation has improved.

Ephesus (Turkey) - marble-top toilets in public latrine near library

Philippi (Macedonia/Greece) – back in the day, folks wore loose tunics or togas that they hiked up when using loo--providing more privacy screening than pulling down pants!