The issues in Holland are
different. A society with a very different set of social values, yet
health issues remain much the same. Dr Preston arrives unable to
speak a very difficult language, called by many the third most
difficult language in the world. To make things more difficult, most
people speak ‘dialect’, actually a totally different language that
even the Dutch don’t understand.
Yet he finds them a warm hearted people, very
happy with their lot in life. Many have not been far beyond the
borders of the odd tongue of land that is the province of Limburg,
reaching down between Germany and Belgium. Granny lives around the
corner, apples lie and seed where they fall, yet a crabapple has
rolled into their land … Old men plant trees they know they will
never enjoy the shade or fruit of. A people that have survived the
armies of Napoleon and the Panzas that rolled over the border from
Nazi Germany, only 10 kilometres away.
A patient who lost a leg, only nine years old,
to a landmine six months after the war ended gives rise to
uncomfortable thoughts about this ultimate ‘terrorist’ weapon, still
manufactured and ideologically defended by leading Western nations.
A woman who discovers that her family did not despise her, they
despised … another who gives Dr Preston some new insights into the
meaning of sex in his personal life.
Political issues within the profession also
come to the fore, with congresses about the management of patients.
Other chiropractors using unethical practices, challenge his sense
of morality, and his position within the profession.
It is a rich time in Dr Preston’s life. A time
of finding meaning without his beloved glider or motor bike, not
even a car: life on a bicycle. A time at which he finds himself
fitter in his late fifties that he was in his thirties.
