dear scary statistics,

dear health statistics,

I appreciate your readiness to warn us from harm and danger, but honestly sometimes it is really sad and overwhelming. here are my least favorite:

1. 1/3 of everyone that has HIV/AIDS doesn't know they have it

2. obesity raises cancer risks by as much as 55%, and obesity is rising exponentially in the US

3. the influenza vaccine (flu shot) used to prevent as many as 90% different flu types, but now can only prevent at most 40%

4. HPV (the STD linked to cervical cancer) is now causing throat cancer in men at an alarming rate

5. so much turmoil in kenya is causing more and more public health risks and deaths of innocent people

6. the burden of disease is rising every second

7. every day 6,800 become infected with HIV/AIDS

8. every day 5,700 die from AIDS

9. the percentage of those living below the poverty line in the US had risen 2% to become 12.6%

i wish sometimes that you statistics didn't exist, and that there was more we could do to heal people. i wish i could go around and tell everyone that not only is "it" going to be okay, but that there is a God that loves them. i guess all we can do is start within our own little sphere of people. i am renewing my resolution to love people around me-- whether they're grumpy, rude to me, whether they've hurt me, or even if i don't know them (cuz lets be honest: it's so easy to love those that already love us back). 

hoping the world's condition betters soon,

brook