Cinco de Mayo, posted on siete de junio :)

We've probably all heard of the holiday Cinco de Mayo (which means 5th of May, in Spanish, and is, not coincidentally, when the holiday is celebrated), but do you know what it's about?

Nope, not beer. At least not originally.

It is also not about big, colorful skirts, although they frequently make an appearance at Cinco de Mayo celebrations.

Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of the Mexican victory over France in a battle fought in the town of Puebla, in 1862. In a nutshell, the Mexican president had decided the country would not pay any foreign debts for two years, and in response several big world powers (England, Spain and France, to be specific), invaded Mexico in an effort to compel payment. England and Spain negotiated an arrangement and moved back out, but France stayed and fought. And with far more money and twice the forces in the village of Puebla, on May 5th, 1862, they lost. (More info here)

What's it got to do with diabetes? Nada. But stay with me for a sec, because I'm gonna attempt to create a connection.

I'm a war history buff. Like, a big one. Not because I'm a fan of violence and misery, but because I am amazed and inspired by the depth of human resilience and determination (yes, even when they're doing what I consider to be the Wrong Thing). In battle, people find impossible physical strength. We can generate goosebump-raising power to resist. We can become unstoppable, monumental forces. We survive the unsurviveable.

... And what does all that have to do with diabetes? Everything. Because if people are capable of super-human feats of strength, stamina and resilience in war then you and I can achieve the super-human feat of getting up and facing this condition every. single. day.

And we can win.

Happy Cinco de Mayo.

If you haven't run across it, David Hackett Fisher's "The Great Wave," looks at inflation compared to inflation rates, he finds to be indicative of war financing, and argues pretty convincingly that when there's wars, there's inflation which generally causes hardship across the board. It's a pretty good book which, while it sounds dry, is a pretty breezy read that I'd highly recommend for a different more macro perspective than the traditional "heroic" depictions of war stories seeing the whites of their eyes or rampaging roughly up San Juan Hill. The appendices include some interesting graphs showing the curves for various crime rates matching very closely the rate of inflation.

It seems to me that diabetes offers a huge opportunity to achieve results through investment. Our diseases are frightfully expensive and treatments strike me as being pretty weak attempts to manage blood sugar. I think there's a lot of opportunity to aim to improve using the tools we have. I'd obviously love a cure but I'd like to see more push to aim for normalization of blood sugar levels and engagement with hypos, rather than hypophobia that seems to be the current mind-set.

In keeping with the inspiration of the OP . . . .

25 October 1415

"For he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition..." Henry V

Yup. And here's another fitting one:

02 May 1863