As is standard in most families, we have a GP who has been looking after our health issues since I was born. I recently fell ill due to food poisoning, probably due to my obsessive consumption of fish, and had to consult our family doctor. Visiting his clinic gave me a strange sense of déjà vu as I was certain that I had been there before. I was aware that I had visited our GP in 2014 when I did a full body checkup with them and had to go back several times in close succession to get a thorough physical examination. I had no problem recognising the settings of the clinic which looked much the same as before. However, what really jerked my memory was when our GP asked me to lie down on the medical bed and checked my stomach and bladder system by exerting pressure on them and asked me for my reaction. This reminded me of an almost identical episode back in 2000 when I also visited our GP and he performed a similar diagnostic on my stomach. Times have changed as it has been almost twenty years but the same medical procedure performed by our very same GP was what was lurking at the back of my mind. It gave me a sense of nostalgia as I was only a boy in 2000 and my physique is now clearly very different from then. I also distinctly remember our GP commenting on my belly in 2000, telling my mother who was accompanying me that I had to lose some fat and improve my body shape. He did not make such remarks on my most recent visit and I take it that my body shape has improved in the past twenty years (!). This recent visit also made me realise that despite the vicissitude of times there are certain things that do not seem to change, namely our GP’s clinic, his way of checking on his patients, his tone in asking us how we feel etc, all of which remain pretty much the same as in 2000. It is remarkable how these little bits of memory lay hidden in the recesses of one’s mind and emerge when one least expects them to. As argued by Heraclitus and the Buddha, things are constantly in flux, though there are also little things which remain constant and trigger our recollection. Such is the beauty of our Universe.
Keith Tse
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