New York Botanical Gardens, Bronx, NY Copyright 2012: singeronthesand
The wounds of a lover are worth it;
kisses from an enemy do you in.
Proverbs 27:6
When I first read this proverb, I was puzzled by Solomon's thought process that would have produced the first line: the wounds of a lover are worth it. Worth what? Pain and misery? I'm not altogether sure that any wound is "worth it." Surely the wounds from a friend are equally capable of doing you in? I wonder what Solomon would say in the case of the Pennsylvania man whose lover was also his enemy?
The gentleman in question, Thurman, has been sick for three years with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, blood pressure spikes and breathing problems. His doctor recently alerted authorities when tetrahydrozoline, a chemical found in eye drops, showed up in his blood tests. A follow-up test at the police station revealed an extremely high level of the chemical in his bloodstream.
Further investigation revealed that Thurman's girlfriend (and the mother of his child) was the likely culprit. When confronted, Vickie admitted to police that she had been poisoning her boyfriend with Visine eye drops in his drinking water. She stated that she had laced his water with the chemical a dozen or so times over the last three years. According to a court affidavit, Vickie never meant to kill Thurman, she just wanted him to pay more attention to her. She was arrested and charged with 30 counts, including simple assault and reckless endangerment, carrying a maximum sentence of 240 years in jail and $300,000+ in fines.
It is true that when a person is sick, they are more in need of someone's help, but poisoning your boyfriend so that he will pay more attention to you? Watching him struggle with debilitating symptoms, knowing all the while that you are causing them? Playing with the life and health of your child's father? I can only hope that Thurman is grateful that the "wounding" from his lover was discovered before it truly did do him in.
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