"Interesting times" in health

Working with a couple of New Zealand District Health Boards this week, I was reminded of the (perhaps allegorical) Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." Although perhaps cliched, it seemed a reasonable opening for my presentation to board members in one of the largest, most complex and highest profile sectors in the economy. (I also questioned what some of them must have done to have deserved the curse in the first place.)

I looked into the origins of the saying: it has been quoted in English since about the 1940s, but what I found most interesting was the story that this is only the lowest of three curses of increasing severity, with the others being:

• "May you come to the attention of those in authority" - a curse that was obviously laid on the entire Board of the Hawkes Bay DHB, who were very publicy sacked last week; and, worst of all,
• "May you find what you are looking for" - perhaps you can think of your own candidate/victim, but I wonder if the new Minister of Health might have have hesitated before his notorious "I'm running the show" comment, if he'd been aware of this 'ultimate' curse.