Note: Hazen, this is for you.

CL and I went over to her parent’s apartment last night for dinner and I found my father-in-law hobbling around, obviously in pain. It turns out he has gout. His right foot is swollen and looks like one hideous bruise. It’s not the first time he’s had it either, and it seems to be an ongoing problem for him.

I was stunned. I think of gout as something that people got in Dickens novels. I didn’t think anyone got gout anymore, yet here was Chen Long’s dad, limping around with gout of all things.

Later, I checked on Wikipedia, and their article on gout says that only about 1% of the people in Western countries get gout anymore. It’s also easy to treat, so no wonder I think of gout as non-existent.

Maybe I’m making an inappropriate leap here, but I think anyone who views China as a wealthy superpower might want to reflect on what it means that an educated man who is better off and better connected than at least 90% of his fellow citizens is nevertheless suffering from a disease like gout. Even with the US’s dysfunctional healthcare system, this would be a fairly cheap and easy disease to treat.