The lost art of recovery for healing

"A world of optimal and widespread health is obviously a world of minimal and only occasional medical intervention. Healthy people are those who live in healthy homes, on a healthy diet, in an environment equally fit for birth, growth, work, healing, and dying; they are sustained by a culture that enhances the conscious acceptance of limits to population, of aging, of incomplete recovery and ever-imminent death."

“Man's consciously lived fragility, individuality and relatedness make the experience of pain, of sickness and of death an integral part of his life. The ability to cope with this trio autonomously is fundamental to his health. As he becomes dependent on the management of his intimacy, he renounces his autonomy and his health must decline.”

“The more time, toil, and sacrifice spent by a population in producing medicine as a commodity, the larger will be the by-product, namely, the fallacy that society has a supply of health locked away which can be mined and marketed.”

"Health designates a process of adaptation. It is not the result of instinct, but of an autonomous yet culturally shaped reaction to socially created reality. It designates the ability to adapt to changing environments, to growing up and to aging, to healing when damaged, to suffering and to peaceful expectation of death. Health embraces the future as well, and therefore includes anguish and the inner resources to live with it".

""Health," after all, is simply an everyday word that is used to designate the intensity with which individuals cope with their internal states and their environmental conditions. The society which can reduce professional intervention to the minimum will provide the best conditions for health."

Come on. No one is designing for side effects to bring in repeat business.

The truth is we barely understand how anything works and there is a lot of two steps forward and one step back… or sideways.

So because some employers are bad apples, everybody has to pay up? For many employers, that would be the end of it. Employers are also just people in most cases.

As an example, I suddenly became employer when my kids joined a privately run kindergarden. The parents all together were the employer, and there were two nannies. Any nanny becoming pregnant would already be a huge strain on the whole organization.

People like to think of "companies" as black boxes with infinite money supply, but that usually is not the case.

First you start with the a beautiful, pristine plot of land.

Then you dig a giant hole in the ground and cause a giant mess.

So to fix that, you pour a big concrete foundation.

But you are still left with a big hole in the ceiling, and that is no good.

So now you hire some contractors to put up framing and a roof.

But you are still left with some big holes in the wall, and that is no good.

So now you hire more contractors to put up exterior walls and siding.

But you are still left with some small door-shaped and window-sized holes in the wall, and that is still no good.

And they left lots of little holes behind inside too: The electrician cuts holes to put in outlets. The doors and windows offer no privacy. The shower leaks. The bathroom is just a series of open pipes.

So you hire more contractors, to add all of those details...

And you still have lots of holes! The windows and doors are drafty without their trim. The drywall seams look unseemly.

So you hire more contractors, to fix all of those details...

And now the walls have paint, the doors have trim, and the roof keeps you dry.

Was it worth it? You spent a lot of money chasing new problems that you created as a side effect of trying to solve the old problems. Was not the original plot of natural land already perfect, and could have simply be tended to?

Perhaps with some careful forestry, you could have enmeshed the branches to keep out most of the rain. It may takes more time and effort, but maybe you could have really benefited by not building a house!