My Op-Ed

My Op-Ed piece is titled, “Some perspective on what we have to be thankful for,” by Marian L. Tupy.  This article really fascinates me because it compares the life between King Louis XIV, who ruled France and is the grandest figure of the 17^th century and an average American of today.  Obviously, he is royalty since he is the king.  The article basically states that the living conditions in the 17^th century weren’t very sanitary and clean.  This piece says that it was very common for people to die very young of sickness because medicine wasn’t available back in those days.  Many of the sickness and the diseases that cause many people’s death were like colds and flus, now today that can be treated easily with medicine, but back then they didn’t have medicine so they simply died.  In addition, people in the 17^th century had a suspicious of bathing, the believed that “once heat and water created openings (pores) through the skin, the plague could easily invade the entire body.” (Marian L. Tupy)  To us, this is crazy to believe that people thought bathing would increase their chances of getting a disease.  It is said, that Queen Elizabeth I bathed once a month.  Queen Elizabeth I ruled England and Ireland, which means that she was a very wealthy person in that time.  Now think of the middle class and the poor.  If the Queen only bathed once a month, how many times did the middle and poor class bath?  People didn’t have medicine to go to when in need, it wasn’t sanitary, and it was very nasty.  People back then didn’t have knowledge of sickness and diseases very much.  This op-ed piece states that we should be thankful for what we have and as well appreciate what we have.  Plus, it states that us Americans tend to overlook the simple things in life that we sometimes take for granted.  I like the way this piece compared the life of a royal person from the 17^th century and average American life.  I could easily see the differences and the author does a good job on distinguishing the differences.  The average American life clearly has a better life over the rich in the 17^th century by a huge margin; in fact, the margin is much greater over middle and poor class lives.  In the end, we should be thankful and appreciate what we have in life.