On growing up.

I’d rather not grow up.  However, I’m working against myself.

Yesterday, I took, and passed, my licensure test for Social Work. (YAY!) I would seem that I am becoming an adult very quickly.

With the word “future” looming at me in the distance, I’m faced with having to make decisions, or perhaps, to start thinking about decisions that need to be made.

My friends keep telling me, “growing old is compulsory, growing up is optional.”

- Bob Monkhouse

By passing the licensure exam, it puts me one step closer to putting the letters LSW behind my name, and one step closer to a professional career. 

I have absolutely no idea what direction to go into.  Public Health? Policy? Macro Practice? Community Organizing?

I’m waiting for one experience to happen and decide everything for me, but “life isn’t a wish-granting factory”, so that’s not happening anytime soon.  (Thanks to John Green for that unfortunate nugget of truth.)

But growing older brings such wonderful adventures, it brings new people into our lives, it brings new experiences, new cities, new jobs, new blessings.  Who isn’t excited, and terrified, for that?

Growing up isn’t easy, it’s messy, and painful, and yet, it’s fun. It’s the adventure we all get to have.

Don’t take life too seriously; no one gets out alive anyway.  Enjoy life.

(I know, I know, it’s bleak humor, but it is true!)

I read another of Dr. Byock’s books, and it’s called “The Four Things That Matter Most”.

These four things are:

1. Please forgive me,

2. I forgive you,

3. Thank you, and

4. I love you. 

Throughout the book Dr. Byock discusses how people who were facing death and their families found healing through saying these four things.  But the larger theme is that instead of saving these things for the end of our life, we should live by these statements.

Say them daily.  Your relationships will be that much deeper and stronger than you ever imagined.  For this is simply admitting that we are inevitably human. 

About time...

Well hello July!

I didn’t expect you so soon!  But you’re here now, and I’m sure you’ll pass by quicker than I would like.

So, on to my thoughts!  I finally finished The American Health Care Paradox which explained a lot of big picture themes of how our healthcare system works, and gave a compelling argument about why it is the way it is and how we can work to change our system for the better.

It’s going to take time, but like all good things, you have to wait for them.

Lasting change isn’t instantaneous.

Rome wasn’t built in a day… and SEE how long it’s lasted!!

Time, it’s what we need most and yet it’s working against us.

Yet, what would we be if we weren’t bound by time?

The documentary I watched, “Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare”, was also very interesting, and informative.

It shed a lot of light on how our system of “healthcare” is a “reactive” system instead of a “preventative” or “proactive” system.  It consists mostly of medical care and does not do a whole lot of “supporting the good” when you visit doctors or hospitals. 

For example, one could go to the doctor for a check up or to seek treatment for a minor malady and the doctor would give them very fine medical care and perhaps a diagnosis, but I doubt they would even ask about how you were keeping up your health in other senses.

Would they ask if you exercise regularly? Or whether you eat lots of kale and healthy foods?  Would they ask about your drinking habits?  Or if you smoke daily?

Most often these questions are only asked if they have something to do with your being in their office in the first place.  Yet, so much of our environment and social interaction contributes to our overall health.  Doctors are specialized in medical care, not in asking about the social determinates of our health.  (Shout out to you Maggie!)

Can we train our doctors differently to see the big picture of what determines health and give them alternatives to treatment with pharmaceuticals?

Can we start talking about how our healthcare system needs to see the broad picture of health?

We have the constitutional right to be foolish about our health, but we should be empowering people to demand access to healthcare organizations that make us healthier in every aspect of our life.