Affordable Health Care ---- All Natural?
Are you looking for REAL health care?
Or only sickness care?
If we're more concerned
with the unpleasant EFFECTS of an ailment
than with its causes,
it is not Health Care
--- it is Sickness Care.
If we care enough to do something about it
only when we're sick
it is not Health Care
--- it is Sickness Care.
Think about it from this standpoint ---
Do you prefer to have control of your own life or to let someone or
someTHING else control it for you? Until we pause, "step back" and
take a good hard look at the "mindset" of our "modern" so-called
civilization, we cannot fathom just how much of our personal life WE
HAVE ALREADY ALLOWED to be taken "out of our control" --- most of it,
psychologically --- not actually, physically. For now, at least, it is
neither illegal, immoral, nor unethical in any other way to take
control of one's own life. But in "Western Society" there appears to
be a sort of unwritten, unspoken "gentlemen's agreement" that each
person must be an "expert" in his or her chosen "field" and almost
totally helpless in any other field of knowledge or endeavor in order
to be "a success", "important", have self-worth, and be "useful to
society" or "a productive member of society". It remains unclear
exactly WHAT we're expected to actually "produce" --- except, perhaps,
"fodder" for the ego of those who HAVE "succeeded" in dominating others
with their narrow, often questionable "expertise" --- and who,
themselves, in turn, are dominated in other areas of THEIR life by this
SAME mindset of selective, willingly uninformed helplessness.
An ancient wise King (reputedly the wisest of ancient times)
once remarked that "man has dominated man to his harm". (Not a
gender-bias comment; simply referring to the human race as a whole)
Such domination does not have to be by PHYSICAL force. The King
also added, in one of his widely known (at the time) proverbs, that
the person "who thinks things out is hated" [as in: disregarded,
despised, ridiculed]. And, truly, in today's pleasure-oriented,
anti-think culture, the IDEA of "thinking for oneself" IS popular,
but serious reasoning actually is not. For the most part, we have
allowed the culture to convince us that we're "too stupid" to
understand "important matters of life" and need "experts" to do that
thinking for us. Of course, truly good advice can be priceless. The
wise King acknowledged that "there is accomplishment through many
advisers." There needs to be a balance; not an abdication of all
personal responsibility. But in today's society, whether intentionally
or unintentionally, we have almost completely relinquished control of
the most important aspects of our life --- including our health and
well being.
Granted, real thinking requires some time and mental energy that we
may PREFER to spend on something we IMAGINE we'd enjoy more. But
taking control of our life doesn't HAVE to be an "anxiety trip". It
CAN be a beautiful, fascinating, exhilarating journey; just as life
itself is a journey. We don't have to figure everything out today,
anymore than we can "see all the scenery" in five minutes. But would
we take a scenic cruise with our eyes closed or holed up below deck
playing video games --- and pay someone else to "see the scenery for
us"? Of course, if you truly VALUE momentary pleasures more than you
VALUE having control of your life, this may not be the thing for you;
but don't we ENJOY thinking about things that interest us? And what
could be more "interesting" than a feeling of well being at least most
of the time ---not just momentarily when we have some kind of pleasure
to take our mind off reality or a medicine to deaden our sensibilities
and forcibly modify our body's responses to it's normal needs for
internal cellular renewal?
What Price Health?
and
What IS Health, Really?
--- the Low-Tech Concept ---
(part of the Truth about Natural Healing)
Let's face it--- We cannot BUY health anymore than we can buy
"smarts". They're not COMMODITIES to BE bought and sold. They're
QUALITIES to be CULTIVATED. And no one else --- no matter how
"professional", persuasive, or psychologically intimidating --- can
do that for you --- or even "sell" you a GENUINE shortcut. (There
are many proposed, but none that actually "deliver".) When we can
fully accept this basic "fact of life" (not just intellectually, but
deeply, emotionally) and determine to actually do something about it
(in a calm, rational, informed manner) we will have taken a giant
step toward taking possession and control of one of the most
potentially rewarding aspects of our life.
The English words "health" and "whole" share a common root word
that implies unbroken unity; not diminished in any way. To "heal",
therefore, is to RESTORE that "unity" of undiminished health ---- the
"wholeness" or fullness of the biological processes that constitute
life.
It is similar to the repair and restoration of your home after
serious damage; which COULD be from a storm or other disaster,
but, in the case of our bodies, is more often like the gradual
deterioration of a house or other building --- from (for example)
water damage that goes unnoticed for years until much of the
structure has rotted away or the foundation has settled unevenly
and the building is literally "pulling apart at the seams". When
suddenly one day we become aware of the damage and start realizing
its extent, is our first thought to install new carpet, wallpaper or
siding to cover it up? Of course not. We want the STRUCTURE to be
sound --- not collapse with us in it!
While, for typical storm-damage, much of the underlying roof structure
will most likely need repairing/replacing/rebuilding, in normal home
MAINTENANCE only the roof COVERING (the waterproofing such as shingles)
will need replacing. If that has been done regularly, WHEN and HOW it
NEEDS to be done, the roof STRUCTURE will still be sound, not
water-damaged, decayed/rotted, or othewise falling apart.
Is a sick/damaged human body any different? Only in some ways. We
can't do it's repair/rebuilding (healing) FOR IT --- not even with
surgery. That's basically a "patch" --- for true healing, the living
organism must do its OWN repairing/rebuilding on the cellular,
bio-molecular level. And no drug can "force" it to accomplish that
real healing --- it already has the correct agenda pre-programmed in
it's DNA. Of course, EITHER medical intervention at a crucial moment
COULD "save a life" ---or, more accurately, postpone death a bit
longer. (Usually, by the time we reach that "crucial moment" ---
unless it's the result of a sudden, catastrophic accident --- our body
has already been on a STEEP decline toward death for SOME TIME.)
But, whether it's the "family home" or your very, very
personal biological "home" (your body) you don't want the damage
just covered up, do you? You want it cleaned up ---- and
repaired/replaced/rebuilt. Those functions require "building
materials" ---like lumber, roofing, siding, bricks, etc. in the
case of a house--- as well as "cleaning supplies and equipment".
Medicine and Medical procedures provide the biological
equivalent of NEITHER. Essentially, in the long-range scheme of
things, it functions more like a blue poly tarp. Indeed, the most
astute and caring medical professionals in "Western civilization" are
indicating that, essentially, most of our illnesses ARE being treated
roughly equivalent to fastening a temporary waterproof covering [such
as plastic sheeting or the ubiquitous blue poly tarp] over a damaged
roof and thinking no more about it as long as the rain doesn't drip
inside the living areas of the house. Sadly, their warnings are being
largely ignored, covered up, and even hidden (archived away from public
view) because it is not what the majority prefer to hear --- so, of
course, it is "not good for business".
Actual "Health Equity" Can Be Yours
"Health equity" is defined by the CDC (U.S. Center for Disease
Control) as "the state (as in "condition", "situation",
"circumstance"---not a POLITICAL state, province or country) in which
everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level
of health". It is usually associated with social justice movements
---- good health being considered a fundamental human right.
What a beautifully noble, simple and straightforward concept
to have such enormous potential for becoming complicated! Not just
Socially and Politically; but even more, by our widely divergent
informal "definitions", perceptions and objectives. TRULY-better
"health", for example, does not come from more or "better" medicine.
REAL HEALTH ---the fullness of the biological processes that
constitute life--- is not merely "prompt, temporary relief" of the
most widespread dis--ease symptoms (just as true peace is not merely
the absence of open conflict).
Some years ago, The World Health Organization was quoted as
saying [apparently referring to things we have done AND things we have
neglected]: "We have inflicted wounds on ourselves, in the belief
that science, doctors and hospitals would find a cure, instead of
preventing the very causes of illness in the first place. Of course
we cannot do without the medical care facilities that actually save
life, but let us be clear that they do not add to our health ---they
stop us dying. ..." ----[POSTPONE dying, actually ---ed.]
While the "right medicine" at the "right time" MIGHT
TEMPORARILY "cure" a "dis-ease" (the distressing outward
manifestations of an illness) but not the illness itself, truly
equitable opportunity to attain our "highest level of health" (and
especially the ACTUAL attainment of such) depends on our willingness
to genuinely think, reason, learn and work in harmony with the true
biological source of true health --- the "natural" world and its
cycles and processes that humans USED to be a part of. Even now,
the "fair and just OPPORTUNITY" to do so is not as elusive or as
complicated as it might seem. As it turns out, simple basic REAL food
(LIVE food, as in "live music"), simply and MINIMALLY prepared, is
actually your body's BEST (and sometimes, only) SOURCE of the
BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS it needs to carry out it's marvelous internal
self-healing, self-renewing functions. (To have REAL health --- which
is to stay as fully alive and functional as possible --- your body
must "re-construct" itself constantly.) So the more "modern" and
"sophisticated" the "cuisine" the less of those essential elements are
still biologically available ---- often, little more than in the
seemingly cheaper and more convenient "fast food" on the OTHER end of
the culinary spectrum --- the resulting biological damage to the human
body and the consequent Medical costs eventually prove neither cheap
NOR convenient, of course.
We tend to use the terms "illness" and "disease" interchangeably ---
and rather loosely. Grammatically, the word "disease" is simply "dis"
plus "ease" --- meaning NOT AT EASE, as in distress, dis-comfort, etc.
In other words, the "SYMPTOMS" of the ACTUAL illness --- which is the
biological damage, deficiency or other malfunction that CAUSES the
distress, dis-comfort, dis-ease.
While we may congratulate ourselves that our ability to reason on
"abstract" (not here-and-now or tangible) concepts, "look ahead" and
plan for or avoid certain eventualities makes us superior to the
"lower forms of life", our human nature's live-for-the-moment tendency
typically concentrates on treating dis-ease and keeping the real
illness "out of sight - out of mind"; much like throwing the cheapest
available plastic tarp over a damaged roof and considering the repair
complete.
True attainment of REAL "health equity" requires a certain
personal involvement --- not politically or socially --- actual
conscious, purposeful involvement in the real biological needs of our
own life --- not just its pleasure or other external superficial
qualities. We can neither wishfully nor protestingly look to any
human government or other agency to fulfill those needs. Ultimately
WE have to "take the bull by the horns" (our own old habits and
thought patterns often being the most "bull-headed" part) and "wrestle
the beast down". Our real biological quality of life has to be more
important to us than any emotional or other biologically external
elements of our life that we might tend to thoughtlessly and
momentarily prioritize.
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"Forgive me my nonsense,
as I also forgive the nonsense
of those who think they talk sense."
--- Robert Frost
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Rutilio_Manetti_-_Sant%27Ambrogio_
(hands_writing_with_quill_pen_detail).jpg
original by Italian painter
Pietro Antonio Rotari
(1707 - 1762)
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a
two-dimensional work of art in the public domain in its
country of origin (and other countries and areas where
the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years).
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