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Beethoven Killed By Lead Poisoning From Personal Physician

Did you know that Austrian forensic investigators have spent the past several years and untold thousands of euros trying to figure out what happened to Beethoven? Me neither, but according to today's Kingsport Times-News front page story, it is a hot topic in Austria.

Beethoven died at age 57 in the year of our Lord, 1827. It was known for years that he suffered from cirrhosis of the liver and other ailments in the final years of his life. But the head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at Vienna’s Medical University recently posited the theory that treatments from his personal physician, a Dr. Wawruch, contributed to his death.

Pardon me for being highly insensitive, but who really cares? What good will come from this? Has Bubba Beethoven, the great, great, great, great grandchild and his family, been reeling from the lack of closure all these years? How does the Wawruch family feel now that they know their relative inadvertently killed inarguably one of the greatest composer/musical innovators of all time? I am sure that this has been a good, teachable exercise for the Viennese forensic students. For me, however, it is just another example of how sidetracked we can become as a society and a culture.

We can spend a lot of time and financial resources figuring out how one man died 180 years ago and not give one thought to the nearly 4000 children that were aborted just yesterday. We can demand that Michael Vick (yes, that little nugget again) serve some 12-18 months for killing and mistreating some dogs, as heinous as that may be, but forget about the child rapist that has served his shortened sentence and was released this week to terrify society again.

Yes, that was kind of a harsh departure for me, but sometimes I think that I too become numb to society's downward spiral and the encroachment of a Godless ethos. We begin to value the vacuous and ignore the important in our daily lives.

Help me, dear Lord, to be ever mindful of why I am here, and of who You are. Help me to care about the things you care about and do the things you want me to do. Help me keep my eyes focused on the higher pursuits and the higher calling to which You have called us all.